


Fates On A Plane

by Weasy



Series: In Parentheses [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Airplanes, F/F, F/M, Monster of the Week, Trapped, canon compliantish, episodic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-11-14 14:07:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11209635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weasy/pseuds/Weasy
Summary: Landing inside a moving airplane was definitely up there in the top ten TARDIS ridiculous miss-landings. Unfortunately, it’s not the weirdest thing going on on board, not by a long way.Set after Krop Tor, Rose and the Doctor's relationship is steaming up but are they ever going to talk about it?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set mid season two (post Satan’s Pit)

Landing inside a moving airplane was definitely up there in the top ten TARDIS ridiculous miss-landings. Thankfully it was one of those massive private planes with en suites and bedrooms otherwise the Doctor didn’t like to think where she would have wedged herself inside.

It would have been better if the Doctor and Rose had realised where they were before they breezed out the blue doors and slap into a six foot human bodyguard. And even better than that if they hadn’t been hanging off each other, cocktails in hand.

One very abrupt interrogation and a flash of psychic paper later they’d been directed to a couple of comfortable looking chairs at the front of an empty cabin area in the middle of the plane. The guard stood over them, still holding the paper and staring intently at them as they smiled politely back. Rose casually pinched the pink umbrella out of her drink and took a sip before tucking the umbrella behind her ear. They might have had a few already. “You’re with quality control, Dr Smith?” The guard repeated.

“Yep.” The Doctor reassured him. “It’s very important for us at-” he glanced behind the no neck at the strange bird logo of the airliner “Ibis Air to be sure that every customer has the best possible in flight experience.”

“That’s why we do these surprise checks, you see.” Rose added quickly, “If we told the staff in advance they might change their behaviour. We have to see how it really is. Like… mystery shoppers.”

The guard pointed at their drinks. “And that’s part of the job is it?”

“Weeell, of course. We are a full service airline.” The Doctor reassured him. “Do you want one?”

He couldn’t really tell if the bodyguard had actually bought it or not, but he passed the paper back to the Doctor with no more than a slightly gruff “Stay here.”

The Doctor settled back into his seat, stretching his legs out whilst trying to subtly get a look out of the window ahead. Beside him Rose was poking around at the controller for the in flight entertainment and looking surprisingly relaxed about their latest detour. She looked fantastic in a short black zip up dress with some sort of short sleevey things that she’d unearthed from the wardrobe and insisted would suit anywhere they might end up, and he felt guilty that Rose had been completely right about the odds of them ending up where they were supposed to. He kept promising her New York and delivering, well not New York. If TARDIS was keeping up to her usual slightly off-kilter standards they were probably flying towards Slough right now. In fact, the only place his trusty blue box seemed to reliably land at these days was the Powell Estate.

The guard, a typical no neck wall of muscle with a buzz cut murmured something into his walkie talkie. Hmm. Actually, this guy was definitely an American. Maybe Alabama. 

The guard stepped out behind a navy blue curtain separating their cabin from the next room. “Are we alright?” Rose whispered.

“Yes, I think so. As long as we’re not on board with the Queen I think we’ll get away with it.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she slapped his arm in return.

“Don’t say that, you’ll jinx it! And you and royalty hasn’t really worked out so far.”

“Oi, that’s not…” He thought about it, “actually, yeah you’re right. Why is that? Other people like me! You like me right?”

Rose laughed and stuck out her tongue. “Of course I do, you plonker.” She scooted forward on her seat and glanced behind them. “What do you reckon, shall we try and just dash back to the TARDIS?”

He felt mischief dancing through his body “No way… big plane, lots of empty space, security guards. There must be someone major on board. Don’t you want to know who? And,” he added thoughtfully “I bet whoever it is has some really, really good food.”

The Doctor watched Rose consider this for all of half a second before nodding her approval. “Personal chef I bet.” She shuffled even further forward to try and peer around the curtain and his eyes followed the movement of her back, the tight black fabric rippling and stretching over her body and pulling the front down slightly to reveal more creamy white skin “Who do you think it is?” She glanced back at him. “A singer? Beyonce!”

He dragged his eyes towards hers. Bad Doctor. It still hadn’t been that long since they’d left Mickey in Pete’s world. Even after everything, he still couldn’t presume. “Maybe. It’s hard to tell what year it is in here.” He clinked his glass against hers and she took his cue to down the remainder in synchrony. 

Rose shrugged “I don’t know. I’ve never been on a plane like this. I don’t know what they usually look like.” She pulled out the remote control she’d been playing with earlier. “This is cool though – look,” she flipped it over to show a blank screen on the other side. “It’s touch screen. You can message the other seats and send them pictures and stuff with this. This one’s stuck though, on a wavy line.”

The Doctor was just inspecting his own remote by giving it a quick scan with the screwdriver when the guard reappeared, abruptly pulling back the curtain he stepped forward and stuck his hand out for the Doctor to shake. “I’m George. The boss wants to see you, if you could both come with me.” 

George moved over to shake Rose’s hand too, smoothly helping her stand and through the curtained archway. Subtly Rose adjusted her dress, pulling it back down her thighs, drawing the guard’s attention away as the Doctor jumped up, flapping his coat while he pocketed the remote and his screwdriver. Rose glanced over her shoulder at him, throwing a wink in his direction and a twitch of her wrist that let him know, wordlessly, that she had something else up her sleeve. A familiar, nothing to do with turbulence, feeling jolted in the Doctor’s stomach. 

The next space was another seating area, but more comfortably laid out. The seats were even larger and small inbuilt tables sat between them. A tall stern faced woman sat in the corner hunched over a laptop, but otherwise it was completely empty. Just how big was this thing?

They went through another set of curtains and finally found people. Of course, it was a bar! Wood polished so hard you could see your face in it, and lined with high metal stools. Behind the bar a doe-eyed man with a loose bouncy afro and a pale blue logo'd uniform shirt was bobbing along to the beat of a fast paced rapping customer and salting the rims of tequila glasses.

The rapper was flanked by a mix of girls and guys whose matching purple hair hung elaborately plaited down their backs. Away from the bar the rest of the space was filled with squashy brown leather couches and another dozen people, their flutes of champagne swishing up and down to the steady hum of chatter. 

It wasn’t clear who the boss was. Rose, George and the Doctor stood amidst the party and the Doctor tried to remember how to be patient. Beside him, he caught Rose glancing uncertainly down at her outfit. She wiggled her toes in her battered, good for running, black leather boots. Reaching out he grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze of reassurance.

Eventually a woman who had been swiping mutely through her tablet spotted them and nudged her partner - an equally slight woman with a platinum blonde pixie haircut and earrings that looked like forks. Together the pair extracted themselves from their friends and wound their way through the crowd eyeing the Doctor and Rose curiously. 

“Here they are Miss Sienna.” George indicated. “We couldn’t reach the ground to confirm but paperwork looks fine and the pilot vouched for them.”

The pilot had what? Rose’s hand squeezed his palm, and he stroked his fingers against hers automatically. 

Miss Sienna appeared to be the blonde one and she smiled perfunctorily at the Doctor before reaching out to shake his hand. “Such good timing Dr Smith. Normally these flights are fine but there does seem to be an issue today.” The Doctor did his best to look helpful and concerned. “We were supposed to land an hour ago and no one seems to be able to say why we haven’t.”

“Oh.” The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “Well, yes. Definitely our department to put you through to the right department, right Rose?”

“Yep.” She agreed promptly. 

The Doctor was already wandering over towards the next curtain covered entrance. “Pilot through here? Smells a bit pilot-y. Stale bagels. All that recycled air they breathe, very bagel-y.”

Miss Sienna’s partner was staring at him like he had two heads. Rose rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, don’t mind him. Tell me - Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

“It’s Jazz. Jazz Ophelia.” That was probably meant to mean something. Oh well. He ducked through the curtain, the other side was the standard cabin crew prep area leading to a small corridor and at the end – his goal. Door with a scary set of locks set into the smooth surface.

Rose was still doing her thing. “Lovely to meet you Jazz. Now, just so we have the full picture is there anything else? Anything a bit… strange?”

He stuck his head back through the curtain, just missing one of the identikit plait people wandering past with a tray of shots. “Rose I need my subatomic wotsit, you know the one with the orange handle?”

“In a minute!”

“Apart from you then?” Jazz huffed.

“Oh relax Jazzie,” Sienna interceded. “I can’t think – though, remember we wondered if they were a bit short on stewards. Max has been on the bar alone there all flight. Usually we have at least two staff up here with us. Who was it last time? Oh yes! It was Justine.”

Jazzie’s dark muttering was at least as audible as she intended it to be. The words ‘fancy her’ seemed to be a feature. The Doctor moved back away from the curtain again, completely confident in Rose’s ability to eek out any relevant details. But this, this staff area. It was wrong somehow.

George had appeared by the Doctor’s elbow. “Dr Smith?”

“Ah! Georgie boy! Perfect. Need to speak to the staff, can you put us together. So I can do a thing.” George’s impassive face stared blankly back at him. “A talking thing, not a thing-thing. Just – please?”

“Okay, Dr Smith.”

“Really, you don’t need to call me Dr Smith. Sounds weird. What about um. John. Or Smith. Or Doctor. I like that one.”

George smiled ruefully, turning to find the staff.

And where were the staff? Because this was the galley – those were the hosts seating areas. This cupboard looking thing – he popped the door with his screwdriver – yup. Their sleeping areas. Four empty bunks.

And also cold. He pulled his shirt collar closer to his neck.

The soft hiss of expelling air tickled behind his ear.

This was bad. Very, very bad.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor had been a while and the argument between Jazz and Sienna was getting less under their breath and more show and tell in front of the class, so Rose backed away pointing to her watchless wrist and mouthing sorry like she was really pushed for time. 

Rose’d been so distracted by the glamorous crowd before she hadn’t really taken in the bar, and now she did she was shocked at how beautiful it was. The curved walls had been clad in carved dark wooden panels. Each one inlaid with gold and silver in intricate blocky designs. The ceiling was the usual cool grey, but higher and wider than usual so no one seemed to need to duck their heads. Flat glass dots were scattered across it’s surface, and she wondered if they would glow once it became dark, like stars on the ceiling of a posh club. Carefully she moved through the crowd towards the bar. The purple haired group had moved away and now it was just the rapper and Max the barman. The rapper was leaning over it while Max hung back pointing at the rows of bottles attached to a short wall that backed the bar area. Rose slid onto a aluminium bar stool and immediately Max flashed her a smile, letting her know he would be with her soon. He was obviously good at his job. Much better than her when she’d tried a brief stint working in a pub at eighteen. Apparently you aren’t supposed to spray beer at the craggy old alcoholics that kept trying to grope your bum.

The rapper got his drink, iced just so and sat eyes down muttering at it, his long hair obscuring his face from her view. He’d seemed so animated earlier when they had arrived and Rose wondered what had changed. Max however was just the same, bopping slightly to some invisible beat or the motion of the plane. “Can I get you something?”

“Best not.” Rose replied regretfully, “I’m here from quality control.” 

Max rearranged his smile into one that looked even more genuine and helpful. “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realise, it’s my first time being inspected. Can I help you with anything?” 

“Well, to be honest Max, it’s my first time too. I’m Rose and this all seems wonderful so far.” Rose reassured him, “I was curious though, some of the customers mentioned that usually there are two of you on the bar here.”

Max gravitated towards her, glancing at the rapper before turning to face Rose and dropping his voice a little. “This is all strictly anonymous?”

“Yes, of course.”

“There’s always at least six staff on a flight like this, there’s only a few of us that do private flights for Ibis so I know everyone pretty well. It’s Justine that normally runs the bar with me week on week off. We cover each other’s breaks, you know the usual. But I haven’t seen her since she went for a nap at three thirty.” He chewed his lip, “I haven’t seen any of the first shift come back, and it’s not like Justine to extend her break. All the staff are really punctual usually I’d say. Well, you have to be.” He picked up a cloth and began running it along the surface of the bar, “working this kind of job.” 

Rose glanced at her empty wrist again, rolling her eyes at her own stupid reflexes before spotting a clock inlaid on the surface of the bar. It must’ve been at least six hours since the first shift had gone for their break and she couldn’t imagine six hours was the norm. Most flights weren’t that long surely? 

“When was your break due?”

Max grimaced, and for the first time she thought she could see how tired he was. “Five hours ago.”

“And, sorry I don’t know the exact set-up, first timer, but you have tried to contact the others?”

He nodded and brought an iPad onto the bar. “See for yourself.” He stroked the screen and tapped a pass code in as it blinked into life. Along the top of the screen and above the Ibis logo were half a dozen staff photos with names underneath. Justine had pale freckled skin, and mousy brown hair. Underneath it said offline. 

Some of the purple people had reappeared and Max moved instantly away, engaging them with warm smiles and throw away jokes.

Drawing the tablet closer Rose tried to scroll the page, Max’s photo had ‘lounge bar’ written underneath, but every single other picture has offline scrawled below.

That did not seem good. 

“Hi, I’m Dan.” An arm had snaked it’s way around her shoulder as it's owner spoke, she tried not to visibly flinch at the strangers contact. It was one of the purple plaited people and he was way too close to her face, staring down at her like he’d found a tenner in the gravel. “Where did you come from?” Rose reflexively looked behind her, no Doctor. Just another purple person heading over. This one was a woman in a gold dress so short it was almost gravity defying, she was glancing between Rose and Dan with increasing frequency with every step closer. 

“Um, I’m Rose – is that your girlfriend?” She pointed, helpfully. 

Dan shook his head and beckoned the other woman closer “Oh no – that’s such a neoliberal capitalist concept don’t you think? Love is such a multi-form concept, it's so offensive. The way it's packaged up into convenient boxes for commercial profit.” The woman nodded sagely and Rose noticed that her hair was not just purple, but plaited with streaks of gold thread.

“Is that real?” The question had tumbled out of Rose's lips before she had even thought about it, one hand half reached over to touch the hanks of hair hanging over her shoulder.

The woman beamed. “Yes, isn’t the gold beautiful? Dan got it to celebrate, breaking Silicon, such a milestone for us.”

“Right. Of course.” Rose nodded like she knew what that meant. 

“I’m La.” The woman looked Rose up and down. Not at all subtly. “How do you feel about celebrating? In the sky.” She smiled wildly and Rose wondered if La knew how easily she could tell that it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Um.” She hopped down from the bar stool, pushing the tablet back over towards Max who gratefully grabbed it and slid it back underneath the bar. “No, I think I’m fine without, if that’s all the same to you.” She deliberately caught Max's eye “back in a minute, Max.”

It was way past time to find the Doctor.

 

George had been gone a long time and the Doctor was getting more than a little restless. He paced around the tiny crew area, unlocking the cupboards with his sonic and poking through the supplies inside. Everything seemed completely normal. Well the cutlery wasn’t plastic and there were real ceramic plates and bowls, so maybe they trusted the staff and customers on private jets more than the rest of the world but still... everything was boring and usual and meticulously packed away in molded drawers and shelves with safety ledges. Even the sonic was useless, every reading he tried turned up nothing. He’d just resorted to giving a cupboard door an experimental lick when Rose appeared sighing heavily.

“Do you have to do that? You must be a walking petri dish of germs.”

He bristled at the implication. “I’ll have you know my immune system is far superior to yours, and my taste buds are too.”

Rose stared at him pointedly and he wondered just how many times they had already had this argument. 

“I sent George looking for the staff, have you seen him?” 

She shook her head glumly. “No. You’re not going to have any luck finding them though. Max on the bar’s communication doodah was showing everyone except him as offline. Whatever that means. Do you need any help?”

“Oh I was just looking around. All seems pretty normal. Bit weird about the staff though.” He tapped the sonic against his lip absentmindedly. “Did he say when he’d seen them last?”

“Three of them went for a break six hours ago and didn’t come back. I’m not sure about the other two. Hopefully George has found them.”

The Doctor spun around. “Right – well that’s a brilliant start – staff break, in the staff break room, right? They must’ve been here.”

She nodded thoughtfully, stepping back and staring up at the ceiling “Six hours ago they came in here and didn’t come back.”

The Doctor ran his hands over the smooth plastic skin of the internal walls. They were grey and dull and not hiding any transportation device that he could tell. He could hear Rose around the corner pulling open the doors to the little sleeping area with it’s funny little pod bunks and he bounded over towards her. Of course – genius! He rounded the corner past the navy curtain leading towards the lounge and nearly slammed straight into one of the purple headed broccoli brothers. 

“Oh, hey.” The man held up his hand in a back off gesture. “I’m looking for that blonde?”

“Oh.” _Was he supposed to say anything else? Also - did this random man mean Rose?_

“So,” The man pursed his lips and glanced up at the ceiling. “Have you seen her?”

“Who?”

“The blonde? Yay high?” He leaned in like they were guys in the locker room looking for privacy “Really sexy little black dress?”

 _Rose then._ At the very edge of his hearing he heard a cupboard door click shut. The Doctor glanced around the room casually as though trying to ransack his brain for any recollection of the one and only Rose Tyler. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that the corridor accessing the sleeping area was completely empty and the doors now closed. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Can’t say I’ve seen her back here.”

The man’s shoulder’s slumped visibly, head lolling on his shoulders as though life, however temporarily, had been utterly ruined. To be fair, the Doctor often felt the same when Rose wandered off, but in this case he was pretty positive that Rose wasn’t going to be at all disappointed about having been misplaced. Of course, in all this time that the Doctor had been pondering lost Rose and the many places he’d found her he’d started to feel that tickly awkward feeling of somebody watching him. 

The man was watching him. He had green eyes. And a slight leer. 

“I’m really sorry, but you can’t actually be back here.” The Doctor tried.

The man stepped forward, running one curled finger over the front of the Doctor’s suit jacket. “Are you sure?”

“Really, very, very sure. Not that you’re not attractive-” he tried again. “But no.” Throwing his arms wide he steered the man backwards and out through the curtain. The fabric swished back into place behind him silently and the Doctor found himself taking a moment to wonder why this kept happening to them, I mean it was a fantastic suit but – Rose!

He hurried over to the sleeping area, throwing open the inlaid doors and crawling up and inside as quickly as possible. 

“Oh, hey.” 

_That bloody man again._ The Doctor reached awkwardly behind him and pulled the door closed.

Someone snickered a few feet away.

The Doctor glanced up, and there, tucked away in the furthest bunk and lying on her side with her hand propping up her head was Rose. _That dress..._

He pressed his finger to his lips and tried to make his way over to her. The space was really incredibly small. The entrance had been raised up off the floor, and now there were a couple more steps that lead to two bunks on either side. The roof was too low for him to stand up straight even here on the stairs and once he’d reached the top and tried to turn toward Rose there was no space to do more than crawl on his hands and knees. 

Rose seemed to think the sight of him crawling towards her was hilarious, shoulder silently shaking as she covered her mouth with one hand to keep herself quiet. He rolled his eyes at her and she moved her hand to shoot him a tongue touching teeth smile. His favourite kind. 

Both bunks were virtually right next to each other, with recessed shelves on the outer walls and a folded curtain pushed to one end of the centre to divide them, so that when the Doctor arrived next to her he had no choice but to crawl up right alongside her body and collapse on his back next to her.

In the background he thought he could hear the purple man still clomping around. 

Rolling onto his side he found Rose inches from his face, eyes locked on his. Her blonde hair was falling around her face and he automatically reached over to tuck it behind her ear. He could feel her breath on his skin, feel her blood coursing beneath his fingers. 

It had only been a few days since Krop Tor, since landing the TARDIS inside the hold of a rocket, an impossible save inside an impossible day. Of pulling Rose into the safety of the TARDIS before they’d even spoken, of the unbearable terror of what would happen if he let her go ever again. Of pulling her close enough to bury his head in her hair and feel the solid weight of her trapped in his arms. Of his lips finding hers, really hers, really Rose. Not Bad Wolf or Cassandra or any other entity that wanted to hijack her head. But totally Rose. Of feeling her mold against him. Her hands gripping the back of that orange space suit. Pulling him closer. Of lips and hands and tongue.

He wondered if she was thinking about it too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken a little while, I got distracted by the end of the new series!  
> Hope you enjoy a little more Doctor/Rose in an enclosed space

The Doctor was watching Rose thoughtfully, and she shifted slightly under his gaze. This dress, the one she didn’t remember packing but which had been in her wardrobe - front and centre when she’d been deciding what to wear for their New York ‘Hooray the Devil Didn’t Kill Us’ celebrations, this dress had not escaped his notice. Sometimes the wardrobe (or probably more accurately, the TARDIS) seemed to do that, seemed to know exactly what she should wear and make unsubtle hints. Every single time Rose would flash back to Saturday mornings as a child, curled on the sofa with her Mum watching a battered old Beauty and the Beast video on repeat. Belle would rail against captivity and the enchanted wardrobe trying to cajole her. “You don’t really want a beast, Rose… you don’t want that Gaston either mind” Sometimes her Mum would say, “Some of those other fellas in that pub might’ve been nice, if Belle’d’ve given them a chance.” 

It probably wasn’t the moment to be thinking about her Mum. 

But if she didn’t think about her Mum she was thinking about the dress, and although she’d caught the Doctor’s lingering eyes earlier and knew he’d loved the little black number - she was having a sudden crisis of confidence. Now she was lying down on her side like this in the funny little staff sleeping area of a private jet… one boob seemed to look slightly flatter than the other, and did she look weird to her Doctor? Because he was still staring, eyes locked in thought on some middle distance through her head.

It hadn’t been long since Krop Tor. You could count it in hours if you wanted. So few moments since the Doctor had suddenly closed that distance and kissed her. That one point in time where the relief that Rose was still alive had finally been so great that whatever it was that normally made the Doctor stop just short of following through with his flirting had fallen by the wayside and they had both acted on pure instinct.

The kiss had been amazing. The kind that feels like a wave of warming light that rolls right through your body, from your toes right to the very tips of your hair. The kind that makes every other kiss in your life feel like a meaningless mashing of the lips. 

Then they’d not talked about it. Instead, completely exhausted, they'd both fallen asleep. When she woke the Doctor had started fussing about the perfect place to go for a fun break and Rose had been left wondering. 

Rose wasn’t feeling demanding, they didn’t have to talk about the kissing. As long as it happened again. Preferably frequently, and/or nakedly. Which led to this tight, black, front zipping dress. And cocktails. 

And TARDIS landing them here, instead of New York. 

Maybe she should be thinking about that. Her arm ached a little from where she’d been propping her head up on the palm of her hand and she rotated her shoulder as she drew her eyes away from the Doctor and towards the low ceiling of the bunk. “I thought there might be a transmat in here.” She murmured quietly.

The Doctor’s eyes snapped back up to her face instantly. “Of course! There’s not though.” He rolled onto his back and started fiddling with his sonic scanning the plastic panelling above their heads. Taking the hint, Rose turned away from him and towards the funny built in shelves and faux wooden panels that made up the outer wall of the staff sleeping area. Carefully she tugged and prodded at them from end to end. “Logically speaking,” she heard the Doctor continue “they must have come in here and then disappeared – it’s the only place where none of the others would’ve noticed.” 

Rose brushed her fingers over the little evidence of human habitation left on the shelf. A watch, slim leather band and a plain white face. A thin card wallet, red leather this time, with a spray of white flowers decorating the surface. She flipped it open. A picture of a little girl, ginger curls crowding her baby-plump face. A few credit cards, then bingo! Drivers’ license, Rose slid it out. 

“Justine.” She spun back around in the limited space waving the rectangle of plastic in the Doctor’s face. “This is one of the staff’s – she definitely came in here.” 

The Doctor seized the license from her, tapping the screwdriver impatiently against his wrist before scanning it over and over again. 

His face fell as quickly as hope had been built up. “Argh, what IS this? How can three people have disappeared and there be no recognisable chemical residue! It’s impossible! It’s-”

Rose’s hand had found the Doctor’s before she’d thought much about it. His fingers laced through hers as he turned back over to face her, their hands resting between them in the inch wide no mans land between their bunks. The Doctor was properly staring at her now. Eyes fixed on hers as his thumb brushed against the back on her hand. “We can do impossible.” She reminded him.

Those brown eyes lazed down towards her lips as she spoke and Rose felt her tongue dart out to moisten them. The Doctor’s hand tugged hers closer to his chest, and she drew closer automatically, grabbing at his suit jacket as his fingers abandoned hers and followed the length of her arm to her shoulder, her collarbone, her chin. His clever digits brushed against her in the lightest of touches that made her shiver with want. 

“Are you cold?” The Doctor’s thumb and the crook of his forefinger were somewhere below her chin and as Rose nodded she felt him follow the line of her jaw around until one hand was cradling her cheek. “Do you want my jacket?”

Rose was torn. God yes, did she want to wear his jacket. She had many extremely enjoyable fantasies that involved her wearing that jacket. But also, no she wasn’t actually cold, it had just seemed easier to say that than ‘sometimes, your vaguest most gentle touch turns me into a gibbering wreck.’ 

How did anyone answer questions that confusing?

Rose fisted his jacket and shirt in her hand and pulled him closer as she arched toward him, feeling every minute movement as his hand left her face and skimmed back down over her body towards the small of her back. She unclenched her fist and let her fingers wander up his chest and around the back of his neck, finding the short hairs there and playing through them as she pressed his head down towards hers. 

This time, her lips found his. Not frantic, like last time, but soft and hesitant. A question kiss. 

The Doctor’s hand gripped her hip, pulling her closer still as he returned her move with a light open mouthed kiss. 

Relief danced through her body as she melted into him, luxuriating in the feel of his mouth, his hands, his body pressed against hers.

Impatiently Rose started to shove the Doctor’s jacket off his shoulders, and he obliged; rotating his arm back and pulling momentarily up to shuck off the sleeves and toss the jacket behind him before collapsing back against her. Rose threw her leg over his hip, catching the back of his knee with the heel of her foot and dragging it between her legs as he used both hands to draw her ever closer, his kisses leaving a fiery path down her neck that settled straight in her belly and grew hotter with every slight rock of his hips beneath her. It was almost overwhelming, how quickly things were moving, how desperately Rose wanted to feel the Doctor’s bare skin against hers right now. His lips found hers again and she moaned against them as one of the Doctor’s hands found it’s way to the hem of her dress, a hem that was riding up her leg with every slight wiggle closer, and the Doctor’s hand followed with gentle pressure that stoked the fire in her belly impatiently.

She was not the only one charging straight ahead. 

Rose flattened her hands against his chest again, feeling his wiry strength under the layers of cotton. There was too much stuff in the way. Her hands found the Doctor’s tie and worried at it, grateful the knot was loose enough to pull apart quickly. Rose left the open remains of the tie hanging around his neck and attacked the buttons, as the Doctor’s fingers tickled further north up her thighs smoothing her flesh as though he were mapping her skin by touch and corresponding sounds of enjoyment.

Someone rapped their fists sharply against the door of their little hideout. It echoed hideously in the tiny plastic cavern.

Panting, they drew away from each other. “Rose, sorry I-” The Doctor pulled back guilt creasing his forehead as he instantly grabbed his hands away from her. Rose felt horribly exposed as he recoiled, already buttoning his shirt and shuffling away. “Sorry I shouldn’t have.”

She rolled away automatically; staring at the bland curved ceiling as she purposefully avoided his eyes. “Forget it. We should be working, yeah?” 

She could feel him pause. Feel his eyes on her silhouette. “Yeah.” He murmured. “Get these people back.”

The person at the door knocked again and the Doctor sighed, so quietly she almost didn’t hear. Rose found herself turning towards him – wanting to say something before the moment was lost. But she was too late and all she could see of him was a messy head of brown hair as he crawled backwards out of the cubby bunk space first. She followed the Doctor silently, and they ended up sat either side of the tiny staff stairs, their legs dangling down below them to make space for their heads above in the tiny space. 

The Doctor aimed his sonic at the door and it popped open with a reassuring thunk. He’d left his jacket she realised, and here, by the door of the crew area it felt much colder for some reason. So cold she wrapped her arms around herself as she peered down the stairs waiting to see who’d interrupted them. 

“George!” The Doctor grinned widely as the door creaked open, personable as always. Missing the slight hesitation in George’s posture. “Did you find the rest of the cabin crew, George?” 

George shook his head, lips pursed tightly. “Doctor, Ms Tyler, I’m sorry, I don’t know where they could be. I’ve searched every inch of this aircraft.”

“Is Max still there?” Rose asked quickly, worry seeping through her discomfort.

George nodded quickly. “Yes, I told him to stay in the bar. Help keep everyone calm. And I’ve spoken to the pilot and co-pilot. They’re fine.”

The Doctor swung down from his post, tripping down the tiny stairway and grabbing George by the shoulders before Rose was even half way there. “Let me in the cock-pit, I need to speak with them. Right now.”

George frowned again. “No. Absolutely not. Even if I wanted – I can’t. That door is dead bolted while the plane is flying, for security. No one can go in until the plane has landed.”

And oh, Rose knew how well that would go down. Gripping George by the elbow she spun him towards her and away from the Doctor, so unexpectedly that the massive man seemed like he might fall over for a moment. “George are you sure Max is alright? I know he hasn’t had a break for hours. What about you are you usually working all day like this?” 

The security guard was momentarily confused enough for the Doctor to slip by and do his sonic thing on the cock-pit door at the end of the narrow corridor. “Yes, I always cover the whole flight for Miss Sienna... and Max is fine.” The Doctor smacked his palm against the door in frustration and panicking slightly Rose flicked her hair over her shoulders, and popped one hand on her waist trying to pose slightly more alluringly.

George raised one eyebrow in response. “Do I want to know what he is doing?”

“Nope!” Rose replied brightly.

The Doctor now had his sonic aimed at some kind of communication panel and was muttering darkly under his breath. George was scratching behind his ear and pretending not to be able to hear while Rose stared around the room and laced her fingers together in front of her.

“Is he meant to be doing that?” Purple-headed La had appeared so suddenly and quietly at Rose’s elbow that she nearly jumped out of her skin. “What’s going on?”

George had switched instantly into professional mode, his face completely unreadable as he moved to steer La out of the staff area. “Nothing to worry about La, these two work for the airline.”

She stopped in her tracks urgently flicking her gaze between George and Rose “Oh, then please, can you help? It’s Dan, I can’t find him anywhere.”

Rose shifted uncomfortably. “Well, are you sure La? There’s a lot of rooms on board.” Privately, Rose couldn’t help but think Dan was off somewhere having fun without his not-girlfriend.

La fixed her with a piercing gaze. “Yes, I’m sure. We don’t have secrets. He likes it when I know where he is, who he’s with.” She wasn’t bluffing this time at all. “There’s an app on my phone, but look-” she shoved it towards them screen up. “It says he’s offline. It’s never said that before.”


	4. Chapter 4

‘No one can go in’ wasn’t really part of the Doctor’s applies-to-me vocabulary, so it was completely natural that as soon as the words fell from George the security guards lips he’d ran through half a dozen plans to get him inside the locked cockpit door. Unfortunately, so far absolutely none had worked. The door itself refused stubbornly to be unlocked by his sonic and the intercom was proving equally obstinate.

Finally he hit upon the right setting to by-pass the security code and the intercom hummed with a steady buzz of static. “Captains! I need to speak with you urgently!”

The radio fuzzed uselessly for a moment before a gruff voice echoed through. “bzzzg’s fine, just a bit of turbulence. Go back to your stations.”

“Turbulence?” No reply. The Doctor stepped back and eyed the corridor suspiciously. Frowning he jumped a couple of times on the spot, landing with perfect precision. No wibble, no wobble, no jerks of confused gravity. What turbulence?

“It says he’s offline. It’s never said that before.” The girl’s voice drifted towards him and the Doctor’s eyelids flickered closed in automatic response. Another one.

He faced the trio and walked over towards them with as casual an air as he could manage. The girl was another of those with purple hair, hers flecked with something gold and shiny woven into it, it was quite pretty. Rose had put an arm around the girl and even George was looking slightly concerned.

Rose caught his eye, “Doctor, this is La. Dan is missing, I think you met him earlier, yay tall? Purple hair?”

“Ah.” The doctor fisted his hands in his trouser pockets thoughtfully. “Yes, we were standing just here and then he went back through the curtain to the bar.”

“I think,” La was trying not to sniffle audibly “I think I saw him come back through here. Did you see him again?”

Rose was staring at him. “I don’t think so, I’m sorry.” The Doctor cleared his throat. “George, I think we need to get everyone together, five minutes in the lounge.”

“Of course, Doctor.” He nodded curtly and taking La from Rose drew her gently past the curtain into the lounge. 

Rose didn’t say anything, just wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the Doctor’s chest. He curled into her, letting his head drop to hers and breathing in the presence of her. “Is this our fault?” 

He wound his hands in hers in response “We don’t know that it’s anything bad yet, Rose. We just need to find them and we know Dan was here not that long ago.” 

She drew back slightly temple still pressed against his jacket. “Okay.” She stepped away and brushed one eye. “Let’s do this thing. Plane full of people, we can use them.”

He nodded, eyes running over the staff area one last time. He felt like an idiot. The key had to be here, why couldn’t he find it?

“Rose, divide them into search teams – I’m going to talk to the pilot again.” She moved away and he caught her fingers before she dropped his hand. “No one can go anywhere alone okay. Don’t let them split up.”

 

 

There were twenty passengers and crew remaining and Rose swiftly had them in designated groups, picking over different sections of the planes sprawling passenger and crew spaces in the search for Dan. They’d taken it all in surprisingly good grace, although admittedly Rose, George and Max had made the tactical decision to tell them only Dan was missing and to pick up any other stragglers they happened to come across. “No fucking way am I getting this lot riled up unnecessarily,” Max had sworn emphatically “I know how much booze they’ve had.”

Rose had two purple people, Miss Sienna and the mumbling rapper on her team. While the other three milled around the bar area fairly uselessly Miss Sienna had taken to the task with an air of excitement that belied how boring she found their luxurious surrounding, digging enthusiastically into splits between wall panels with her perfectly manicured nails and upending cushions as she went. Rose followed her trying to intervene when necessary and wondering how she was supposed to actually look for Dan herself in between preventing Sienna from tearing the plane apart and supervising the disinterested. 

Mercifully a scream came from the staff area, and Rose dashed yet again behind that stupid blue curtain only to nearly trip over the Doctor’s team surging the other way. “Doctor?” She shouted, pushing her way through the tiny crowd until she was face to face with his startled brown eyes.

“I think I found them.” The Doctor mouthed, gesturing behind a row of refreshment trolleys with his sonic. Carefully picking her way through the small space and past the trolleys she moved closer to her Doctor and his hand slipped around her waist as four shrivelled corpses came into view. Her stomach lurched painfully and she grabbed the back of the Doctor’s jacket in her fist as she fought not to look away. Each body’s skin was grey and taught, pulled tight over awkward skeletons caught forever in cringing positions and drowning in the useless cloth of their Ibis Air uniforms.

A strangled squeak made them both spin around, the Doctor’s sonic point first at their intruder.

“Miss Sienna,” Rose breathed, relieved at the sight of the platinum haired woman, “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to see this.”

“But,” Sienna’s blue eyes popped out of her round face “this is my plane, and that – that’s my crew. I don’t understand. I thought we were looking for Dan.”

The Doctor grasped her shoulder gently, drawing Sienna’s attention to him and away from the dead staff. “We didn’t want to worry anyone Miss Sienna, but this is your plane and you need to start talking. People don’t get mummified out of the blue. You need to tell us the truth now.”

Miss Sienna nodded mutely. 

Behind them Rose carefully closed the door to the storage area. Dimly she recognised it had been just underneath the staff sleeping area. The entire time she and the Doctor had been… she dragged her thoughts away purposefully and concentrated on Sienna. 

“Are you carrying anything unusual on board?”

Her eyes darted sideways instantly. “Well, I. I…”

“Sienna, there’s six people missing now and only four bodies here.” Rose kept her voice low and level, like she was dealing with a skittish kitten “Maybe we can save the others, but you have to tell us the truth.” 

“My family, they have… collections I guess. Art, antiques that kind of thing. We use the jet to fly them around between museums and houses. For, er, tax purposes.” She blushed heavily and Rose rolled her eyes.

“What’s on this plane?” 

“A mummy.” Sienna licked her dry lips. “I think. I didn’t… actually check the listing. It’s Jazz’s birthday, we’re flying everyone to the Hamptons for a party. And I just had the bar redecorated, it nearly wasn’t done in time.” The Doctor closed his eyes and Rose, mindful of fireworks, found herself gripping Sienna’s arm and guiding her out of his range. “I saw it though.”

The Doctor’s eyes snapped open, “What was it like?”

“It was… it was strange. In a metal casket. Not the wooden storage crates everything is usually packed in. I just thought it was a new kind. Something safer.” 

“I doubt that.” The Doctor replied curtly. “It’s probably what killed six people. But you got your party, so.” He motioned toward the covered entryway to the lounge with a jerk of his head, distaste evident in his eyes. “Make sure you stay together. Don’t want more victims.” Silently, Sienna turned and walked away. 

Once she was gone, the Doctor turned to face the storage area, scuffing his hair with one hand.

Rose didn’t ask if they could do anything to revive the bodies lying just beyond the cupboard door. She hadn’t seen anything more definitively dead looking in a long time. Instead, Rose moved over and slid her hand in his. “Mummies on a plane?” 

He grinned down at her “No, not mummies – Anubis. I’ve never met him before.”

“Hang on, Anubis? I remember him from the British Museum. Isn’t he like - an Egyptian God? Gods don’t actually exist do they?”

The Doctor laughed. “No, not like that. Just likes to think he is,” the Doctor eased the storage door open again and dropped down to his knees to start scanning the battered flesh of the nearest corpse. “Anubis uses nano portal technology to steal the muscular system out from underneath your skin.”

Rose grimaced. “That’s mental. Why does he do that?”

“No idea.” The Doctor replied brightly.

“Um. Not wanting to rain on your parade or anything here, Doctor, but why exactly are you so cheerful right now?”

“Because, Rose Tyler,” he spun to look up at her “If Anubis is on this flight and so is his sarcophagus and if we’re really, really quick then we have the skinniest, tiniest chance you’ve ever seen to bring these people back.”

His grin was infectious, and she flopped beside him to brush a brief kiss against those beautiful lips. “You are brilliant.”

He ducked his head modestly, continuing his scan of the hopefully-not-permanently-corpses bodies. “Yeah, just as long as he doesn’t kick them into zombie mode it’s all…” 

The closest body, with it’s flush of mousy hair, twitched one outstretched finger.

“…Did that?”

The entire hand twitched restlessly and with a papery creak the head rolled backwards revealing bloodshot eyes peering at them.

“Oh balls.”

“Run!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm sorry this took a little longer than usual. I got distracted finishing Hanging Up. Enjoy!

The graying skeletal corpses had already been a bit disturbing, stacked up in the cupboard like old shop dummies; now that they had lurched onto their feet and were chasing after Rose and the Doctor they were downright terrifying. The creatures weren’t particularly fast, but the tiny staff corridor they were stood in was littered with the service trolleys that had been shifted out of the way of the storage cupboard. The Doctor pushed Rose towards the gaps and she tried to squeeze past as quickly as possible, sheer instinct guiding her along through tiny spaces, while the Doctor shoved the closest trolley at the reanimated bodies, trying to knock them over or block their way. The closest, mousy haired corpse stumbled over it’s own dragging feet and lunged towards the Doctor; fingers outstretched to try and grab at his skin. 

Horrified, Rose grabbed at the Doctor’s flailing arm and pulled him away as fast as she could manage, adrenaline thumping in her ears as they burst together through the dividing curtain and back into the bar area. Their sudden appearance had clearly startled the other passengers, who were stood in small groups around the room. Whatever chatter there had been before had died to complete silence at their frantic entrance and every single one stood staring puzzled at the Doctor and Rose. 

“You might want to run!” Rose yelled as she barreled through the useless crowd and towards the next section of the plane. “Being chased by zombies!” She added, skidding to a stop eyes wide and gesticulating behind them as she tried to get the passengers moving. 

Jazz huffed, impatiently. “Oh, shut up.” 

Rolling her eyes Rose ran back to the curtain and pulled it back, so that the entire bar was treated to the sight of the lurching corpses making their way towards them. “Really, actual zombies.” Rose repeated. “Gunna run now?”

Hysterical screams shot around the room. Over by the bar the heavy drinking rapper fainted clean away, sliding off his stool in a rather spectacular slump that knocked a row of shot glasses off the bar and sent tequila spraying around the room. La and Jazz, coming into their own, shot over to help Max pick the man up, his sweaty pale skin rolling into vision as they rolled him over and tried to carry him between them. The rest of the passengers shoved themselves madly at the exit towards the rear of the plane. A few kindly souls were steering those frozen in shock to safety while others jostled past in an attempt to get as far away from The Evil Dead as possible. 

_The Doctor_ , Rose span around trying to spot his brown and blue self amongst the throng of people. Of course he wasn’t running at all. The Doctor was standing near the curtain, holding it back and watching as the nightmarish creatures crept ever closer. On the other side of the room the shouts were getting louder. The scrum at the exit tighter and more panicked; Rose glanced between the two emergencies trying to work out who actually needed help. Surely even the biggest bunch of numpties in the world could work out how to walk out a doorway to safety. Not even a door, a curtain. The Doctor meanwhile, didn’t seem at all concerned as he casually hung about within a few feet of possible brain eaters. 

“Back! Back! Go back!” She tore her attention back to the crowd, and making a split second decision ran over towards the bar to clamber up over a stainless steel stool and onto the polished surface of the bar. The ceiling was low and she grabbed onto it with one hand, steady as the flight was she was still pretty precarious up there; every tiny roll of the plane threatening to buck her off the surface and back to the floor. Higher up Rose could see better over the crowd. The people at the back were still pressing in towards the exit, but those closest were pushing away, frantically screaming at the mess of people moving towards them. Right by the door four people lay crumpled, their bodies half hidden under the curtain. 

Apparently they were a bunch of fucking numpties. Raising two fingers to her mouth Rose blew hard and sharp, the loud whistle doing most of the job and a best ‘what do you think you are doing’ tone shouting “Hey! Step back from the door!” Doing the rest. 

For the second time in the last three minutes a sea of faces turned towards her. “Shift it. You’re crushing people, slow it down okay?”

“You’re the one who said run…” someone muttered darkly, and Rose magnanimously ignored it, giving everyone the stink eye until they’d backed away from the door a little.

Carefully, Rose crouched down and jumped off the bar striding through the parting crowd with as much confidence as she thought she could pull off as she sought the injured people at the front. “Let’s try it again, calmly eh?” 

Nearer the centre the mood changed. Instead of just hanging back waiting for the okay to continue evacuating, people were still moving the wrong way. One of the men with purple hair walked straight into her, peddling backwards so fast he didn’t notice her and after they rebounded off each other the man did nothing more than continue to scramble away silently, a look of fear in his eyes as Rose turned to face him. 

Moving faster Rose pushed to the front. The group on the floor now had a small terrified looking circle of spectators standing around them. The bodies were completely motionless, and slung together in an uncomfortable pile, like a game of human dominoes gone horribly wrong. She dropped to her knees beside the closest person, a man in a grey suit and reached out to touch his wrist. The suit sleeve crumpled under her fingers, like it was far too large. The fabric she’d pushed back rose up the man’s wrist, revealing pale grey skin that wrinkled as she watched, hollowing out painfully until it was nothing more than fragile bone under stretched skin. 

Breathing hard Rose leaned back and grabbed a corner of the curtain that hung so close to her side. She drew the curtain back in as small a movement as she could. Just enough to peer past and into the seating area on the other side. Two lanky limbed zombies stared down at her, motionless but clearly aware. Black unblinking eyes tracking every movement. One wore the same staff uniform as the others. The second had long, purple plaits. Rose scrambled back, chest heaving as she got herself away from the curtain and the prone bodies on the floor. 

“Doctor! We’ve got a problem!”

“I’m kind of busy!” He called back. She could hear the whir of the sonic over the stunned silence of the crowd. 

“Well, you’re gunna be busier! There’s two blocking the exit over here.” She glanced down at the thankfully immobile corpses by her feet. “…and possibly four more.” She murmured. 

“Rose. Rose,” someone’s hand was on her shoulder and she turned to face the worried voice. La was beside her, eyeliner smudged and lines creasing her face. “I… I thought I saw something when we were searching. I went to the loo by myself. I know-” she cut in, before Rose could interrupt and point out the very specific instructions she had left about not going anywhere alone. “I just. I was only going to be quick. And I thought I saw Dan. But, like, a zombie Dan. I recognised his top.” The girl drew a pained breath. Closing her eyes for a moment before asking the question she clearly had not dared to think. “Was it... Is it true? Is he a zombie now?”

Mutely, Rose nodded, before gathering La’s tiny frame close into her arms. “I’m so sorry.”

They stayed there for a few minutes, until Rose drew away and stood up. Surveying the dozen and change wealthy passengers still remaining. Max, George, Jazz and even Sienna were all immediately visible, propping up the most stunned looking of the friends. The Doctor, he'd finally returned and relief surged through her body at the sight of him, sonic in hand, making his way through the crowd. A moment later The Doctor had wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, heedless of the crowd watching on. They stayed there for a a few long seconds. Rose, eyes closed and grateful for his warm, comforting presence. The Doctor might be pretty much entirely hot and cold with his feelings about her, but he was always there in the thick of it with her, making sure she was safe. They’d always look out for each other. “Did they touch you?” he whispered in her ear.

“No, I’m fine. Why aren’t they coming in here?” She murmured back, turning her lips towards his ear so he could hear better, under the guise of brushing her lips against his neck. He smelled unfairly delicious. Not even a tiny bit sweaty after being chased by zombies. 

The Doctor drew back, a slightly rueful smile dancing over his lips and a glance that gave away unsaid words before settling into his usual problem solver pose. He spun around to face the crowd, clapping his hands together and looking people in the eye meaningfully. “Afternoon,” he said brightly. “I’m the Doctor, if we’ve not met. If you don’t want to get mauled by zombies I highly recommend listening to me.”

“Who are you then?” Someone interjected.

Rose bristled at the rudeness. “He’s the guy who’s going to get you out of here alive, so button up and listen.” 

“What’s going on, Doctor?” Max asked. Max was sat beside an older woman, arms wrapped over her shoulders as she stared at her knees. “Are they really zombies?”

“Well…” the Doctor drawled. “Zombie is probably the wrong word. They’re not independently functioning but they probably do want your brains. All your muscles and organs basically. So number one rule. Do not touch! Do not let the zombies touch you not even for a second. If they touch you, you die.” The Doctor paced in a circle, making sure every single one of the dozen and change remaining living people on board had understood his instructions. “I’m sorry. I know these are your friends.” His eyes lingered particularly on Max here, now the sole surviving member of the cabin crew. “If I can help them I will, but it the meantime we need to save ourselves.”

Sienna raised a hand hesitantly and the Doctor indicated she should speak with a short nod of his head. “I, um,” she licked her lips. “I don’t understand why they haven’t come in here.”

“Excellent point!” the Doctor seemed genuinely pleased; darting over to the curtain covered area near the staff zone. He aimed his sonic at the navy curtain rail, pulling it aside with considerably more flourish and excitement than Rose had attempted earlier. “Look! They can’t!” 

The four zombies stood mutely, their cabin crew uniforms hanging lankly from their skeletal forms and eyeballing them silently. Some raised their hands and motioned vaguely at the entrance way before dropping their fists uselessly back to their sides.

“Kind of takes the sting out, doesn’t it?” Rose cocked her head to one side, stepping forward to watch the zombies watch them. 

Sienna moved beside her. “Not really, I’m definitely still pants wettingly scared.” 

“Go on then,” Rose indulged the Doctor, “why can’t they come in?”

The Doctor rocked backwards and forwards on his toes. “Bit more complex that, number of factors to whittle down.” He turned his attention back to the main group. “So if everyone could sit down try and be patient, maybe stop drinking, just for a bit.” He wrinkled his nose at his own joke; Rose stomach lurched at how adorable he seemed, rambling away in his usual perfect way to keep bystanders happy in a crisis. If there ever came a time when she and him started talking to each other, properly, instead of just snogging in high stress situations. Would she confess how much she loved him in these moments? His unflappable ability to seem like he had a plan even when she knew he didn't. Or would all these words stay unsaid. Communicated only in tiny glances and touches. The Doctor’s eyes lingered on her for a moment as he moved past, and she followed in his wake as he gathered George, Max and Sienna together by the bar. Jazz lingered not far away, watching them and keeping the rest of the passengers just out of ear shot. 

Jazz was growing on Rose.

“No more delays, I absolutely have to speak to the pilot.” The Doctor was saying. “We've got no idea what's going on in the cockpit. They’ve been alone, all this time and yes we’re flying steady, but it must be totally off course.”

The question hung unspoken between them.

George, ever unflappable, was leaning over the bar to grab Max’s iPad. “Doctor I told you that it’s impossible.”

“Well, no, probably not.” The Doctor’s flipped the sonic screwdriver in his hand up into the air and back down to catch it in one smooth move. “Given enough time, I’ll always be able to get in. Problem is the zombies in the way.”

Max shuddered visibly, his afro's bouncy shiver giving him away and Rose found Max's fingers to give his hand a quick reassuring squeeze. “We’ll think of something. Like… maybe we could get down below, into the hold and just walk straight underneath them.”

George shook his head grimly. “We could get in the hold from here, probably. There are service hatches, but not all the way under the cockpit. The only way in is that door.” He had tapped in a password and was flipping through apps, clearly looking for something.

“Right, so - just got to get past the zombies.” Rose said hopefully, trying to sort through the mess of information rapidly firing around her brain, think of anything useful she’d seen or heard since they’d got on the ship.

In a short impatient movement, Sienna shook her head. Eyed darting about nervously and voice wavering as she spoke. “They might be slow but they’ve killed what, half a dozen people already?”

“Ten, actually.” Rose narrowed her eyes, leaning back to take in the rows of people now sat anxiously on the other side of the room. “Except, they didn’t take everyone they could’ve did they? La said she saw one, when she went to the bathroom by herself…”

“Maybe she was just too fast for it.” Max cut in hopefully. “Maybe if we run?” 

“And her!” the Doctor twitched his eyebrows and jerked his head at a slightly older woman on the end of the row. Laptop bag sat primly on her lap.

“Mischa?” Sienna echoed.

“Oh yes!” the memory fell into place in Rose’s mind. It seemed so long ago now, walking up through the rooms of the private jet with George when they’d first arrived. Passing the woman sat in an empty lounge area with her laptop, working in silence. “She was alone for ages, why didn’t they pick her off?”

“Plenty of opportunity.” The Doctor agreed. “What do Mischa and La have in common… and also, since we're stood here chatting this - zombie free - room.” He gazed up at the ceiling with it’s artificial stars set in plastic, and around at the wooden cladding, the tiny porthole windows, the bar, the curtain covered archways. "Yes..." Eyes lingering on La and Mischa. “Yes..." He ran over towards the nearest wall, smoothing his fingers over the patterned surface before fiddling with the sonic, scanning at the metal inlaid pattern on the surface of the paneled wood. “Of course! So very, very clever!” 

“What, what is it?”

The Doctor turned towards them, triumph on his features. “It’s the gold.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's zombie fighting time!

“Gold?” George echoed as he squinted at the Doctor, trying and failing not to give away his scepticism.

Rose spun around taking in the shiny squarish pattern that squiggled it’s way across the walls of the entire room. La had that gold threaded through her hair, and the tall older woman… she saw now what the Doctor had. A chunky flash of gold around her neck, a wide necklace that sat over the top of her grey cardigan and caught the light that flickered through the port hole windows of the jet. She turned to Sienna, back hand in hand with Jazz, stood mutely in a shocked silence that clouded their eyes with worry. “Hang on, didn’t you say you’d just had this place redecorated?”

Sienna opened and closed her mouth dryly a few times before answering. “Yes, I… we do it every five years.”

Jazz stepped back slightly staring at the rest of the passengers intently. “This is the first time your family used Mischa as a designer though, isn’t it?”

“For the jet, yes. She was very highly recommended.” Sienna’s nervous eyes darted around the room. “Oh God, what’s happening? This doesn’t feel real. Stuff like this doesn’t really happen.” Heavy breaths heaved through her body as panic started to take hold.

Jazz was instantly soothing her, wrapping her in a hug and whispering calming words in her ear.

Rose’s eyes met the Doctor’s old ones briefly, the kind of glance he’d offered her a million times, a quick check that she was okay before he ploughed on saving the day. “What else do you know about her?” the Doctor asked. Rose tried not to wonder about those tiny meeting of the eyes, the kind of wistful edge she sometimes imagined they had. Something extra that made his gaze linger just that little bit longer than necessary.

Jazz shrugged around Sienna’s sobbing body but George had found what he was looking for on Max’s tablet. “She’s in here, personnel profiles. Mischa LaZouvay. Miss Sienna’s family have been using her for a while for their offices. But this is the first time she’s redesigned the jet.”

The Doctor skimmed through the information while the rest of the group awkwardly stared at each other. An unspoken instinct told them all not to turn around and stare at the possible traitor, and the back of Rose’s neck itched with the temptation to turn her head and see if Mischa had clocked them. If she’d realised they knew. But then, did she even know herself? Rose had been in enough life or death Doctor related situations by now to know how often people got used as pawns. It couldn’t be chance that safe spaces had been built on the jet right before it was attacked by an insane wannabe god with a gold allergy, but that didn’t mean Mischa was evil necessarily. 

Well, hopefully it didn’t. 

The Doctor passed the tablet back to George wordlessly, and stood, tapping the sonic against his cheek as he considered their options. 

Then it clicked. “Doctor… do you remember the wolf?”

His eyes shot to hers instantly, fixing Rose with a piercing glare. “Which one?”

“Scotland. Torchwood house. The room with mistletoe treated walls.”

The Doctor’s face transformed as a huge grin spread across his features. “Rose! Of course!”

“What are you talking about?” Jazz cut in, clearly irritated by their confusing conversation.

The Doctor waved the little group closer together, voice low so that the other passengers – so that Mischa – wouldn’t hear. “1886, whole thing with Queen Victoria and a werewolf.”

“I’m sorry, but again - what?!”

“It doesn’t matter about that.” Rose explained. “What matters is there was this room; it was built to be a trap, for one specific creature that was allergic to mistletoe.”

“Or thought it was.” The Doctor continued.

“Either way, it worked.” Rose took over seamlessly, happy to be back in her double act role. “The wolf couldn’t get out because it was trapped inside and once it was stuck we could deal with it.”

“So… you want to try and trap the zombies in here?” George echoed.

Sienna shook her head, calming down at the hint of a potential plan. “All my friends are in here. We can’t put them at risk.”

“The zombies that fell inside the room,” Rose waved towards the rear exit door, trying to indicate the pile of fallen bodies without having to look at them too closely again. “Those ones don’t seem to be the same as the others, they’re just lying there.”

“Yes because they’re not really zombies, and they’re not really allergic to the gold. It’s just interferes with the signals from the nano tech.” The Doctor took in their blank faces. “Look, okay it’s like, um, it’s like gold wallpaper. For a little bit of the twenty second century people thought wall paper with gold threaded through it was the best thing ever but stick it all over your average three bed semi and the wifi signals couldn’t make it from one room to the next, no one could get online. Total disaster.” Rose saw the others nodding along, though Jazz had narrowed her eyes and mouthed ‘twenty second century’ at her girlfriend she was managing to keep quiet about it. 

“So, back to the zombies – they’re being controlled by Anubis. Anubis uses nano portal technology to strip human bodies of their muscles and organs.” Max was looking a bit green again, and Rose nudged him with her elbow before shooting him a small, hopefully reassuring smile. “Then, because he’s a bit brilliant, total bastard, but brilliant he uses the nano tech to make the bodies get up and move around and pass the nano genes along, infect more people.”

Four sets of wide eyes were now staring at the Doctor and Rose.

“Do you really work for Ibis?” Max eventually ventured.

“Course not, but I really am going to save you.”

“That’s kind of our job.” Rose added.

The Doctor frowned, slightly confused. “Nooo, I thought our job was travelling about a bit and the world saving just sort of fell in our laps.”

“Fair point." Rose smirked knowingly. "I reckon the TARDIS has got other ideas about that though.” 

Miss Sienna cleared her throat, somehow managing to make the sound both disapproving and amused. “How does this help us?”

“Because,” Rose repeated. “The zombies that fell inside the bar, they got turned into zombies but the next step hasn’t worked. They’re just lying there. If we can get the others in here too we should just be able to step over them.”

“Exactly.”

“As long as no one touches them and they stay still.” George clarified.

“Yup. This room is a perfect gold-plated zombie trap.”

“So how do we get them in here?” Max asked.

“With us.” Jazz’s voice was hard. “We’re the bait aren’t we?”

The Doctor hesitated. “Yes. But you, Jazz, you’re also my wings. Those personnel profiles say you know how to fly this thing.”

Sienna gaped, dropping Jazz’s hand and stepping back. 

Jazz shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not fully qualified yet. And it was going to be a surprise!” She added, snapping with the righteous anger of someone caught out.

“A surprise you knew I wouldn’t like. Sounds great.” Sienna shot back, arms folded against her chest.

Max rounded on the pair of them nostrils flaring, fear finally giving way to anger. “It doesn’t bloody matter, I’ve been listening to you two bicker around the world for four years now. You’re both always going to do what you want to and you’re both stupidly in love with each other. Just get over it and get on with helping someone else for a change!” 

Shocked into silence, Jazz at least had the decency to look slightly abashed, jutting her chin out and nodding at the Doctor. “I could do it. I know the pilot too, he might let me in if he’s still okay. And if he’s not Sienna here’s the only one that knows all the emergency access codes.”

The Doctor smiled. “Perfect. Once we’ve got the zombies out the way, you and Sienna go to the cockpit. Take as much gold as you can with you. If you run into a zombie just spread it around them as close as you can and they should stop functioning. Just remember, don’t let them touch you.” He started patting down the pockets of his coat. “We need a way to communicate.” He fished the in flight entertainment remote out of his pocket, smile getting wider. “Little bit of souping up, this’ll be perfect.”

“What about me, Boss?” George had stiffened up, near enough stood to attention and awaiting orders. Good job he hadn’t gone all out and saluted, Rose thought wryly.

“You George, I need you on security. We can’t let Mischa know we suspect her, but we do need to know what she knows and we need to make sure she isn’t sat there activating plan B. I want you sat with her, ostensibly you’re watching the zombies, really you’re watching her. Got it?” George nodded, determination written all over her face. 

“Max and Rose, you’re with me. We’re going to make a few changes around here.” 

 

It took a while to set everything up, particularly now they had to do it covertly. Jazz and Sienna, with nothing specific to do but hang around near the doors for a while, milled amongst their friends, trying to subtly borrow gold jewellery. Jazz had taken a burly bloke with a trio of gold signet rings off to one side and was hard at work convincing him she was considering a major fashion change. George sat by Mischa, and chatted with her about his new condo in Oceanside, interior design and where had she got the idea for the gold inlaid into wooden panels. 

Nearby Rose, listened in quietly and tried to suppress her giggles of amusement at their occasionally not very covert attempts. The Doctor had given her the sonic screwdriver and she was using setting D324/72 as instructed around the door frame. Presumably it was doing what it was supposed to and connecting up the imbedding of the inlaid gilt around the doors into the… whatever the Doctor had said. It wasn’t meant to do it totally, just enough to hopefully confuse the readings the nano tech were taking and make the zombies think they had a chance to get in. Behind the bar, Max and the Doctor were off trying to find the access panel that would lead them to the hold and the electrical panels. 

Rose stepped back and surveyed the doorway. She’d left the curtain open while she worked, not keen on the idea of the zombies being inches away but totally unseen, but being watched wasn’t much better really. They’d stopped trying to touch the invisible signal confusing barrier that held them out and simply stood. Black eyes wide open and following her every move. Every so often she indulged the childish urge to stick her tongue out at them. 

Finished she gave Sienna a quick thumbs up before heading over back to the bar, content with a job well done. 

As if on cue the Doctor’s head popped up from behind the shiny black surface, looking very pleased with himself. He flashed up three fingers and she turned and did the same, catching George’s eye to make sure he’d got the message. He straightened up instantly, twisting in his seat to flash his own fingers at Sienna and Jazz behind Mischa’s back. Immediately understanding, they made their own confirming signal, moving away from their friends to hover near the exit closest the cockpit. 

Two. Rose hurried into position, heading towards the Doctor. As soon as she rounded the curved end she rolled her eyes at the total mess the two men had made of the floor. A virtual assault course of torn up carpets and metal panels. Cables trailed from the cabinets under the bar where Max sat on his heels, giving Rose a quick grin before turning back to a row of switches hastily wired into the system. In the middle of it all was a hole in the floor. That’d be where they were going next, then…

She took her place beside the Doctor, ready as she’d ever be. He nudged her gently with his shoulder, showing her the stop watch in his fist and making sure she was okay. The second hand ticked around to zero.

“Now!” He cried, and just below them Max started flipping switches. Sparks flew around their feet and Max scrambled back from the panel, sucking his fist where it had been caught by the flames. Ahead of them a tiny blaze flew around the door frames, the gold was alight, sparking pure white as it burned it’s path around the door frames. The passengers panicked again, those nearest stumbling away from the doorways and the zombies who had already sensed their chance, forming a tight knot of people near the windows opposite the bar. Rose felt a bit bad for not having warned them, but there had been no way to do so without tipping Mischa off.

Already the zombies started to shift in anticipation of an opportunity to enter the room, or the nano tech was; their eyes locked on the noisy crowd of bodies in front of them, shuffling again towards the open doorways. 

Except Mischa. Mischa stared at the Doctor and Rose, expression unreadable, hand gripping George’s leg so tight it must hurt, though he said nothing, just held a stun gun he must’ve been hiding against her hip and whispered in her ear, glaring at her with fierce determination.

The zombies broke through, made one single step and then fell in unison, four from one door and two from the other, into crumpled heaps. 

It was a bit of an anti-climax. 

“Excellent!” The Doctor crowed, and the startled crowd briefly broke into applause, hugging and slapping each others backs. The Doctor smirked at Rose. “Honestly, you’d think they just rewired the mainframe to temporarily defuse the Faraday cage and allow the nano portal technology to order the zombies inside, then automatically disconnect their signal access.” 

She smirked back. “Nah, that was all me and Max.”

The Doctor pouted briefly before turning his attention back to the crowd. “Right you lot! Nearly there, just popping off for a bit. My man George is in charge, Max-” he motioned at Max to stand up, and he did slightly hesitantly, nervously waving at the assembled hordes of passengers with his unburnt hand. “Max here is second in command.” 

Unnoticed by all but those in the know, Jazz and Sienna slipped off towards the cockpit.

“Stay in this room, and this is very, very important. Do not touch those zombies! Understood?” 

There was a smattering of nodding heads and yes’s. Satisfied, the Doctor finally turned to Rose, indicating the hole in the ground and quirking one eyebrow. “After you.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the zombies out of commission, the Doctor and Rose hunt for Anubis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait!

The jet's hold space underneath the bar had no pretence of being in any way fancy or posh. The walls were nothing more than a metal frame with curved sheets of brittle fibreglass stretched and bolted between. Hundreds of cables were slung between the supports of the frame, each looped through wide holes drilled in the exposed surfaces of the frame. It was loud too, the thwump of the plane’s engines much harder to ignore down there without any sound proofing. Rose dropped down first, and found herself having to squeeze further down the tight passageway on her hands and knees to let the Doctor jump down. Uncomfortable memories of Krop Tor venting ducts shot through her brain.

Ahead of her there was the bluish splash of light and she moved onwards, crawling through the tunnel which opened up and widened slightly towards the glow as soon as she heard the thump of the Doctor arriving behind her. 

“You alright?” He whispered, just loud enough for her to hear above the engines.

“Fine,” she continued to shuffle forward, knees scraping against the rough floor, and tried not to think about how ridiculous her arse may or may not look from his angle. “Just following the blue light road.” 

The walls either side of her, now she could see a little more clearly, were actually hulking plywood crates; stamped and dated in a script that was illegible in the half light. 

“What’s all this stuff?” 

“Art mostly, according to the manifest. But I suspect…” She could hear the Doctor scrabbling around behind her then the whir of the sonic. Curious, Rose stopped moving forward and in an inelegant, scrambling movement managed to wedge herself sideways in the gap, far enough around that she could see what the Doctor was doing. 

He’d stopped by a slim crate, and was using the sonic to unearth the metal plugs that bound the sides together. With a final clink the last nail dropped to the rough floor and the Doctor leaned forward, digging his fingertips into the gaps and easing the panel facing him away from the rest of the crate. Something small and dusty trickled from the cracks as it fell forward, the trickle becoming a flood as he wrenched it away and propped the wood to one side. “The customs mark says statue.” The fluffy stuff smelt like crisp, freshly shaved wood, and the Doctor dug his hands inside without warning, pulling back a moment later with something black and shiny in his hands.

“Guns.” Rose breathed, reaching out to run her fingers along the cold metal. “I get the feeling Sienna’s family is not entirely on the up and up.”

The Doctor shoved the gun back in the box and lent the wooden panel back in front of it. “Just what we needed.” He grumbled. “Weapons. Don’t tell the humans, they’ll get stupid ideas.”

Rose rolled her eyes, “You remember I’m human, right?”

“Course.” He grinned at her, grasping at her hand in the dark and giving it a quick, reassuring squeeze. “You’re special though.”

“Mmhmm.” She grumped.

“Come on, we’ve got a sarcophagus to find.” He nudged her leg and she took the signal to continue her way towards the light. He hadn’t even mentioned that she was heading straight for danger first, and she wondered when that had changed, when the Doctor’d stopped worrying so much about her ability to handle herself.

The passage wasn’t long, and sloped downwards into the belly of the jet, giving them both a little more room to move comfortably. In minutes they were at the end of the space grateful that it was now just big enough for them to stand, side by side. Ahead of them were more crates, so many more that they couldn’t see through to the back of the plane, just endless square grids of boxes, segregated by nets and ropes. 

“It better not be buried in the middle of one of these.” Rose sighed, squeezing past the Doctor to trail her fingers across the netting covered crate opposite.

“Nah. Other people knew about this, knew Anubis would be activated during the flight. It does beg the question though.” He peered down the maze of passageways surrounding them. “Whether or not we’re alone down here.”

Rose shivered, peering into the badly lit storage area cautiously as they started to explore. It wasn’t just nerves, now they were further from the hole in the ceiling the unheated hold was freezing, so cold Rose’s breath puffed in clouds in front of her face. Crossing her arms she rubbed the goose-bumped skin and started to move faster. She picked a stack to investigate and paused at its entrance, keen to make sure the Doctor had seen where she was heading. He rubbed the hair on the back of his neck guiltily at the sight of her shivering. “Sorry, I should’ve gone back for my jacket, you could’ve borrowed it.”

His thin blue shirt couldn’t’ve been much protection from the cold either, Time Lord physiology aside, and Rose shrugged magnanimously. “Let’s just do it quickly, yeah? I’ll race you to the light!”

She darted off down the narrow corridor, his laughter and the thump of his chucks against the metal floor following as he disappeared from view in another direction. The echoes of his footsteps died to silence incredibly quickly, swallowed by the towering stacks. Rose slowed her pace slightly, hoping to hear the reassuring sounds of his presence as she scanned the containers on either side of her for signs of anything suspicious. 

Shadows splayed out from her right hand side and she turned into them every chance she got, trying to find the source of the pale turquoise illumination that hung over the area. Out of the silence, a dull buzzing suddenly sounded to her left and her footsteps slowed to a stop, trying to work out what to do. “Doctor?” She whispered walking back a few paces to press her ear against the closest crate, heart hammering in her chest.

“Rose.” 

She spun around, looking for his familiar alien presence, and was met by nothing but the cold blue light and lengthening shadows between the crates. “Doctor?” She tried again, a little louder.

There was a click, then the light snapped off instantly, plunging her into the dark. Terrified she stepped back and immediately knocked back into a pile of boxes, shoving into them so hard the top ones rattled and she wrapped her arms over her head to protect herself as she ducked down, feeling the rough wooden surface of the box scrape against her back. Unbidden, the image of more zombies lurking in the dark popped into her brain, and when something brushed against her elbow she jerked away, kicking out with her feet and hoping her boots would protect her from nano transfer. 

The Doctor oomphed in response. “Rose!” He hissed, irritated. “It’s me.”

Relief soared through her and she giggled nervously, groping in the dark to find his outstretched hand while her breathing calmed down. 

“Maybe splitting up wasn’t the greatest idea.”

Rose turned the criticism back on him petulantly. “I don’t know what you were thinking, agreeing; s’like you've never seen a horror film.” Rose tugged on his hand and used him to help her stand up. “I’m glad it’s you.”

His other hand found the sonic and flicked it on, the gentle blue light it emitted little more than enough to pick out each other’s faces in the gloom, but still much friendlier and more reassuring than the light from before. Taking advantage of the relative calm she wrapped him quickly in a hug, feeling the reassuring solidness of his chest and his arms around her, before drawing back, a little regretful that they needed to keep moving. 

“Did you hear the buzzing noise? Right before the lights went out?”

He nodded. “It was my communicator, Sienna rang to say they made it into the cockpit." His mouth twisted into a grim frown. "I was right the pilots had been converted already, they managed to get them out; Jazz is flying now.”

Rose digested the information carefully, even in the dim light she could see the sadness in his brown eyes and she leaned up to press a quick kiss to his cheek. He fingers twitched against hers in response, head ducking to move closer to hers for the tiniest moment before jerking back to scan the darkness around them.

He cleared his throat, awkwardly, and though he didn’t let go of his hand she wondered if she had overstepped. “Jazz says the plane was flying towards the Arctic, she reckons there’s enough fuel to reroute back towards Canada and find somewhere safe to land.”

“No wonder it’s so cold.” The Doctor looked guilty again, and Rose tugged at his hand impatiently. “Did you find the sarcophagus?” 

He shook his head. “I think we’re close, and I think he could hear me using this.” He pulled the touch screen remote from his never-ending pockets and showed Rose the image burned on it’s face. The squiggly line from earlier replaced a sort of sideways L and a stick figure man sat side on in a chair. 

“It’s hieroglyphs right? Isn’t that a God?” She pointed at the little man. A pleased smile danced over the Doctor’s features and she shrugged nonchalantly. “That British Museum trip, surprisingly memorable. Possibly it’s the panic working.”

“Oh, Rose Tyler, you always sell yourself sort. Yes, it’s someone important, possibly dead. And that-” he pointed at the L and cringed slightly. “I think is a tooth.”

Grim dread settled in her stomach. “He’s going to eat us isn’t he?”

“On the plus side, he’s taking the time to chat first. And if there's one thing I'm good at, Rose Tyler, it's out-talking a chatty man.” There was a bemused silence before the Doctor indicated the path Rose had been travelling on with the sonic. “Go on then, onwards.”

The muted glow of the sonic did little more than stop them from walking face first into walls of crates. Both Rose and the Doctor seemed reluctant to end their grip on each other, so Rose’s only spare hand splayed out beside them into the dark, the splintered surface of the wooden crates and their sharp metal corners dragging under her fingers until they reached a gap. As soon as her fingers hit air Rose would stop; without comment the Doctor would spin the sonic around to peer into the new passageway, looking for the lurking stumbling danger that haunted the back of their minds.

It was anxious progress for the pair, every scuff of Rose’s boots against the unevenly riveted floor and cold shock of metal under her fingers pushing her blood pressure that little bit higher. After a while the boxes faded away, the stacks becoming smaller, the gaps between them wider until there was nothing before them but empty space. Cautiously they crept forward eyes trying to take in every grainy detail and spot Anubis before it spotted them.

“There!” The Doctor breathed, but it was two more steps more before Rose could see it, the cold silver gleam of it’s surface. Raised waist high on a stack of other boxes, the shiny sarcophagus stuck out ominously amongst all the wooden packing crates. Closer still she could see the detail of it. Every inch of the surface carved in hieroglyphics she didn’t recognise, the squiggling text grouped in delineated boxes. 

The Doctor dropped her hand, and Rose saw him reach out towards the glistening surface, felt the a mental tug that urged her to copy him. “No!” She pulled him back.

He stopped, stunned, flat eyes peering at her under frowning brows. “What?”

“We can’t touch it! The nano wotsits!”

Something snapped and he stepped back, rubbing his face with his hands. “Oh, very clever.” He shot at the coffin, shaking his head and rattling loose the cobwebs of whatever thrall had been compelling him to touch the sarcophagus. “What would I do without you Rose?”

She blushed, toeing one boot against the ground. “Let’s not find out, yeah?” 

He pulled the communicator out of his pocket again, passing the sonic to Rose and directing her to keep it pointed at the sarcophagus as he worked. 

“Now, let’s see if he’ll talk to us.” For long minutes he worked, tapping away before huffing irritated and shoving it back into his pocket and rubbing at his cheeks in frustration. “Something else.” He muttered, attention snapping back to the sarcophagus ahead. He stalked towards it, hands firmly in the pockets of his trousers and Rose watched him pace, watched his mind whir through his options until he spun back to face her. “We need to open it.”

“What?” It slipped out before she could stop it. “Won’t that just let whatever’s inside out?" She considered all she knew of Egyptian mummies. "Or possibly disintegrate it which may be no bad thing…” 

“I don't think so - but if we leave Anubis in there, we never find out what Anubis is, and we can’t figure out what we don’t understand.”

“… I suppose.” Rose was sceptical, to say the least. But she trusted the Doctor, his judgement was mostly good. At least, he always came back to her. “How are we going to get it open without touching it?”

“It’s not made of wood.” He pointed at her, one eyebrow raised and she realised, stupidly, that she was still holding the sonic. 

“Oh.” She blushed again, profoundly grateful that in the blue light he probably couldn’t see her pink complexion and passed it over to him. Swapping the sonic for the heavier weight of the souped up remote communicator. 

“Keep an eye on that, I’ve got a feeling he won’t be that impressed when we start digging in.”

The sonic whirred instantly, the sound reverberating around the cavernous space as the Doctor hunched down by the side of the sarcophagus and moved it along the hairline crack that marked out the lid. Careful to stay far enough away that he wouldn’t accidently brush into it.

Rose peeled her eyes away from the Doctor, concentrating on the dim outline of the symbols on the device, flickering in the reflected light of the sonic. 

Moments later the screen flashed a painfully bright gold and Rose scrambled back, automatically reaching out to catch at the collar of the Doctor’s shirt as she did so and pull him back too.

The lid of the sarcophagus peeled back, rolling away out of sight into the base as more golden light poured from the open space. 

"Doctor!" She screamed, her cries echoing through the darkness as she tried to heave him closer, out of the blinding rays.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose find out what's in the box under the plane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long wait I was away.
> 
> Plus I've been writing a lot of Publish lately so it took a while to get back in the action adventure mode!
> 
> I'm intending to finish this in the next few weeks. Hope you enjoy.

The Doctor and Rose landed together in a jumbled heap of limbs and he found himself squeezing her wrist in a grateful gesture before they scrambled apart, both unable to tear themselves completely away from the pouring light in front of them. It was painfully bright even for him and Rose had thrown her arms over her face to protect her eyes. A moment later the blinding light had snapped off, not quite with a click but close enough, replaced with the cool blue glow they had grown used to. 

He could feel Rose panting beside him, lowering her arms and pulling herself up as she adjusted again to the dim light, scoping out the room cautiously as she peered into the shadows before meeting his eyes with a slightly stunned look. “Slightly unexpected.” She breathed and he nodded, ruffling his hair. Relief that they both seemed to be okay sat heavily in his stomach, mixed with his constant gratitude that he had Rose at his side amid his continued confusion about what was going on.

Between them, the Doctor felt the abandoned communicator buzz against his hip and his fingers groped blindly beside him, grasping at the cool plastic and metal urgently, his fingers brushing over the bare skin of Rose’s thigh and snatching them away before they got distracted again.

The screen was flickering, and he knocked the side the chip sat at, trying to shove the connections back together with brute force. It flickered a couple more times then seemed to settle on a series of new hieroglyphics. Dozens scrolled across the screen and the Doctor sighed heavily, breathing out the ragged ball of adrenalin and stress as he tried to translate the tiny pictures. 

Rose’s eyes followed the text too, leaning towards him to see better in the dim light. The tiny pictures whipped past meaninglessly, and he could feel her hot breath panting against him as she rocked back on her heels, rubbing her thumb across her lips thoughtfully before snapping into movement and groping around on the dusty metal floor. A moment later she was back and something happy sparked in the Doctor’s soul when the void she had left beside him was refilled with her smirking presence. Wordlessly, Rose tapped his sonic screwdriver against the screen under his nose. 

“Also not made of wood.” She pointed out, helpfully. 

"Ah." Sometimes he wondered how he made it through these things without her. 

He let his fingers linger against hers, just for a moment as he took the sonic, letting the tiny touch speak for him where words so often failed to appear. He found the right setting quickly enough, and the sonic got to work, rerouting chips and circuitry inside the device until a tiny static hum emitted from the concealed speaker. 

Grinning he redoubled his efforts, adjusting this level and that until the tiny hum became a snatch of halting robotic words. “-woken me.” 

Rose giggled. “It sounds like when you text a landline.”

“You will regret having woken me.” The device repeated, and Rose’s smile didn’t falter, eyes on him, waiting for the Doctor’s next move to save the day.

No pressure.

“We’ll see about that.” He replied gruffly. “Now, can you hear us?”

“Yes. I am aware of your weak attempts at communication.” 

Rose rolled her eyes. “Never just a yes or no is it?”

The Doctor ignored her, the back of his neck prickling at the choice of words. “What do you want? We might be able to help, do things peacefully.”

If the robotic voice could laugh, it probably would have. Instead, after a long pause it simply said. “No. That is not a possibility.”

The Doctor closed his eyes, the device heavy in his palm as he tried to plot his tired brain through the different outcomes. “Tell me who you are, where are you from?”

“I’m from here.” 

He felt Rose’s hand slip over his knee, a faint reassuring squeeze. “You were human?” Her hand felt cold and he automatically wrapped his arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer.

“Once.”

The next question sat heavy on his lips, and he found himself reluctant to ask. “Are you Anubis?”

Another long pause, and Rose shifted the device in his palm so she could see it better. It spoke eventually. “Some call me that.”

“Was it your choice to travel on this particular aircraft?”

“You are very… inquisitive.”

“Yes.” The Doctor agreed. Smiling into the gloom. “I didn’t intend to be on this particular journey, I wondered if it was the same for you.” Was he getting somewhere? Was the fact that this once human was conversing at all a hint of success or completely meaningless?

“It is the destination.” The voice eventually offered. Some slight hint. The plane had been heading towards the arctic. Did it realise yet that the flight path had been changed? That it no longer controlled the pilot?

“What about the people on board?” Rose asked, her voice slightly dry, he watched as she liked her lips and tried again. “What about the humans?”

“They are not important.”

“Then let them go.” His hearts thudded in his chest, painfully aware of the pivot point they all swung around. The dividing line of pity and mercy and those willing to use others to get what they wanted.

“They are not important.”

“If they’re not important,” Rose tried again. “Just leave them somewhere, leave us somewhere safe. It doesn’t matter to you.”

“They are expendable. They will be deleted.”

There had been no pause. No quiet moment to consider. This was how it was. Mischa the collaborator popped unbidden into his mind. How much had she really known? If the plane was heading to the arctic with them all on board the chances of any of them surviving were extremely low. Here in the unheated hold it was already cold enough that Rose had spent most of her time running or cuddled close to him, sharing what little body heat they had to offer. 

“I am awake now. I need their bodies. I need organs. Essential hardware was lost to the canopic jars.” 

Shattered images scored through the Doctor’s brain. Everything he knew about mummification. This once human had been mummified, had lain in a tomb probably for thousands of years before Mischa and whoever else had got involved and set them all up in this booby trapped plane. 

There was a creak in front of them, and centuries of instinct shot the Doctor up on his feet, Rose at his side. Together, they crept closer towards the cracking, popping noise emitting from the sarcophagus, “What are you now?” The Doctor whispered, desperate for certainty, for those seconds of foreknowledge that would prepare him for what came next. 

“I am nothing yet. I was cyberking. I will become a new cyberking.”

The Doctor shoved his arm out, stopping Rose before she got any closer to the sarcophagus and grabbing her hand as he spun them both away. “Run!” He yelled, dragging her with him through the stacks of crates and away from the sarcophagus he no longer wanted her anywhere near. 

Their shadows fell in front of them, obscuring what little light there was and sending them stumbling haphazardly through the tiny paths of the hold. Behind him, Rose careered into a particularly tall tower, the deafening scattered crash of it falling making him stop and whip around, hands grasping at the empty spot where’d she’d been seconds before. “Rose?” She staggered away from the mess of shattered wood and debris that now blocked the path behind them and shot the Doctor a blinding smile. Shooing him forward as he stepped back to wrap his arm around her and help her on. She shook her head. “I’m fine, keep running. Maybe it'll slow 'em down.”

The Doctor trusted her, fundamentally, trusted her insistence she was fine. Her depth of knowledge about how dangerous this situation was, so he did as told pivoting on his heel as he took the lead. The trust didn't stop the welling panic that something might happen to her, and he listened out for her footsteps thumping behind his, clocking every one as a sign she was safe. They were maybe a little slower but still following resolutely as he finally found the spot of pale yellow light that would lead them back into the bar. 

“Here!” He shouted, glancing back to check she was truly there, right behind as he hunkered down to crawl through the tiny passageway. The crate they’d opened earlier blocked their way, and the side he’d taken off was knocked from it’s position as the Doctor sped past, exit finally in sight. 

When his head finally popped up through the mess of cables and ripped carpet into the bar and met the anxious eyes of Max the brighter light was briefly disorienting, muddling his senses as he lifted himself up and out with Max’s help. Rose, Rose, Rose rang through the Doctor's head and he immediately spun around, dropping back to his knees to lean into the tunnel and grab her arms as he helped haul her out. 

“Quickly,” she shouted, grabbing at the two by two grid that had covered the access point, shoving it back into place and pressing down as the Doctor used the sonic to spin the screws back into place. 

“What’s going on?” Max’s pale anxious face hovered beside them. “What is it?” 

His eyes met Rose’s, saw the fear that sat in her stiff posture and withdrawn pose. “It’s a cyberman, or it will be soon.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the penultimate chapter! Hope you've enjoyed this.

“What’s a cyberman?”

It wasn’t just Max now; a small group of worried looking passengers were gathered around the bar, leaning over and around it to watch the Doctor and Rose as she held the open faced grid down and the Doctor struggled with the sonic, trying to get the last few screws back into place. It hadn’t been that long since they’d dived down through the escape hatch hunting for Anubis, but Rose had almost forgotten there were other people on the plane.

“They’re big robots. With human brains.” Rose explained, probably too bluntly given the answering round of panicky murmuring. 

“Human brains, but with all the human emotions removed. No more compassion, or love or higher plans. Just the desire to make everyone the same as them.” The Doctor expanded, motioning at Rose to move further round and press harder on one side of the plate where it had been forced slightly out of shape in the hurry to remove it earlier. Cautiously she pressed her hands fully against the grate, feeling the cold air of the hold against her palms as she rocked forwards and leaned her full weight against it. “Perfect.” The Doctor grinned at her as the last screw’s threads finally slipped and burrowed into place. 

“That thing down there isn’t fully functioning though, and I’m pretty sure it’s a kind I haven’t met before.” The Doctor mused aloud, rocking back on his heels and staring into the middle distance.

Rose felt off. Her hands tingled, a tiny almost imperceptible sensation like the void when you stop leaning on a limb and the blood rushes back to your extremities – that rush before your nervous system has a hissy fit and rolls a stabbing sensation all over your skin.

The Doctor’d finished and Rose meant to move, wanted to pull herself away from the floor and bound back into hero mode.

“Doctor?” He’d already moved away, trying to explain something to Max.

Rose was stuck. Completely unable to move and suddenly, painfully aware of how vulnerable she was. Anubis was below them, looking for this exit, and she was somehow welded to it. “Doctor?” She was louder this time, more instant and his eyes flickered down towards her curiously, tongue pressed against the inside of his teeth as he paused - half formed word still in his throat. 

“Rose?” He dropped to his knees next to her, tugging at one unmoving arm. 

“I can’t move.” She pointed out, trying to sound calm. 

“What does it feel like?” 

Rose recognised his urgent panicky tone. She’d heard it before. Too many times.

“Weird,” she scrambled for anything useful to say, anything that would help him save her. “My arms feel cold, and empty and like… like that feeling that second before you get pins and needles.” 

The Doctor had his sonic back out, scanning her brain, hands, heart anything he could think of. Frowning as each reading revealed itself to him and tapping the end of the sonic against one palm as he held his breath. 

“That’s not r-reassuring.” She stammered, closing her eyes briefly and breathing through her nose as she tried to stop the panic from taking hold.

“Sorry, Rose. I…” He fisted his hands in his hair for a moment, eyes darting wildly around them before diving forward and staring back down through the grid she was stuck too. “I think the nano tech has got hold of you.”

“But I’m in the gold room!” Rose shouted. “It’s safe here!” 

Max and a passenger had run over to try and help, she felt strong arms wrapped around her waist and shoulders, tugging and pulling as they shouted back for others to help them.

“I know, I… I don’t.” The Doctor stammered, sonic shining down into the hold below them. Rose tried to twist so she could see what he was looking for. 

A wizened hand grabbed at the grate from below and adrenalin shot through Rose in an almighty wave of terror that set her heart racing so fast she felt it might explode out of her chest. She wrenched away as hard as she could, the burst of fight or flight energy so sharp and intense it felt like it wasn’t even hers, but something else quick and oddly golden channelled through her limbs. 

Rose flew back, stumbling in a wreck of arms and legs as she scrambled and rolled away, random hands grabbing out to pull her further away. Someone was screaming, so loud it nearly drowned out the pulse that thudded in her ears. 

Max had pulled her back against his chest and as soon as she could focus she surged forward, pulling against his grip to join the Doctor again, standing over the grid and whacking at the grizzly hand with a metal ice scoop. 

In a burst of blue light it slid away. 

The Doctor’s eyes found hers, wide and panicked as her own.

Max let go, and Rose stumbled away, grabbing the ripped up flooring and dropping it back over the exposed grate, like hiding the entrance would somehow keep them safe. The Doctor dropped the scoop to the floor, moving closer to find her hand and draw her into a hug that she sank into gratefully, feeling her heart finally start to calm down. 

“Was that it?” 

Max’s voice had gone high pitched and squeaky again, and he'd moved to press his back against the bar, a hastily grabbed bottle of vodka slung over his shoulder and eyes fixed on the lumpy scrap of carpet on the floor. “Is it over?”

“Not quite.” The Doctor replied. 

Rose could feel his voice rumbling in his chest against her ear and reluctantly she drew away. There was more work to be done and she could have a meltdown when it was all over. Rose turned to face the crowd of pale, drawn faces and tried to smile reassuringly, show them she was okay. She hoped she was okay. “Where’s Mischa?”

The passengers glanced anxiously at each other, shuffling to either side of the room to reveal a path towards the seating on the other side. George and Mischa were the only people still sat there, his stun gun pressed against her temple: while she sat, calm and quiet. 

The Doctor stalked towards her, and Rose hurried in his wake. Whatever had just happened had clearly crossed the solid line that guided his actions. She’d had a chance until Anubis had gone for Rose. Now she might not. 

You only get one warning. 

“Are you ready to talk?”

Mischa shrugged, stretching her long thin legs out in front of her and rolling her neck as though her stiffness from sitting so long was the first thing on her mind. “If you really need me to.”

The Doctor shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, tilting his head and sizing up what approach to take. “Did you know? About Anubis and the cybermen?”

A pale pink tongue peeped out past Mischa’s lips, before they spread into a smirk of bravado. “Of course. The cyber named after Anubis is my ancestor. Taken around 2570 BC to be cyberking and convert the Egyptian Empire. He was defeated then deliberately hidden, weakened in a pyramid.”

“You realise what cybermen are? If you bring ‘em back we’ll all be dead, including you!” Rose lunged forward, the urge to shake this strange pallid woman overtaking all rational responses. The Doctor grabbed at her wrist, holding her back from hitting Mischa but not sending her away.

“Of course.” Mischa snapped, and for a moment, Rose thought she saw the tiniest crack in her immaculate façade. “I know very little about this man, but I’m assuming he didn’t want to be cannabalised for…” she waved a dismissive hand, “robot parts.”

“So why didn’t you leave him there? Or better yet find a way to properly get rid of him.”

“I am!” Mischa roared, all pretence of calm finally broken she surged to her feet, George following haphazardly behind, shouting a warning as he pressed her tazer against her back. 

Panting Mischa held up her hands. “I’m not attacking anyone, I promise. I’ll calm down, just let me explain.”

Rose sighed, watching as the Doctor gave George a small nod of consent. The Doctor motioned towards the slouchy brown sofa before sitting down himself. Reluctantly, Mischa sat down too, folding her hands demurely over her lap and smoothing at the rich cotton of her skirt. 

“The legend of Anubis had always been told in our family, long after my ancestors left Egypt. It was told because we had to explain to each other… this whispering in our heads.” The confession clearly pained Mischa, her fingers scratching at the fabric stretched over her knees. “For some of us, it was not so bad, a small annoyance. For others, they’ve ended up driven mad in asylums. Or charting ships back to Egypt trying to do what the voice says. To find Anubis and set him free. For three thousand years he has haunted our family.” Mischa’s hands clutched painfully tight at the skirt and Rose realised how much more there must be to this story, how strange and awful it must be to constantly hear a voice that wants your help to commit evil. “I hear it clearly, I hear Anubis demanding I find him, that I give him what he needs to be fixed.”

“What does he need?” The Doctor asked, urgency taking precedence over sympathy or tact. “And how did they trap him before?”

Mischa laughed in a short, sharp burst. “They were ancient Egyptians. I don’t know how they overpowered him, but when the metal monster wouldn’t die they scooped out his brain from his nose. He still functions, slightly somehow, but not like the stories say he was before. Not destroying or converting every man in sight. If any creature got too near his sarcophagus he would take them over, drag the flesh from under their skin and control them. So they put him in a pyramid, hidden behind a hundred traps. That’s all I knew, until a few months ago.”

“What happened then?” Rose felt her voice softening, despite herself, one hand resting against Mischa’s shoulder as she encouraged her to go on.

“Miss Sienna’s family had me redecorating their empty island house in the Caribbean. Anubis' sarcophagus was there. I knew as soon as I set foot on the island. It was weak, incredibly so, it must’ve been starved for thousands of years before someone broke into that pyramid and sold it the family - but I could hear it’s glee. I knew the family were planning on starting using the house soon, as soon as they did Anubis would have the opportunity to build it’s strength up. It was already sapping small amounts of energy from the builders and decorators. I knew I couldn’t leave it there, eventually it would draw enough energy to rise up and take the brain it needed. But I didn’t want to just dig a pit and hope for the best.”

No, Rose considered, Mischa was certainly not that kind of woman, she’d’ve seen the inherent risk in anything that simple. 

“So you made a trap.” The Doctor concluded. “You designed the safe room of the plane, and put his sarcophagus outside it. You must have known that there would always be some people outside of this room, the staff.”

Mischa nodded grimly. “I know it’s wrong, but the other alternative was an end of the world chain reaction, because of MY family.” She shuddered and Rose looked away, wondered what others might have done in the same situation.

What the Doctor might do.

“What I don’t understand,” he said. “Is how you got me here?” 

Mischa’s eyes flicked nervously from side to side. “Miss Sienna’s family sells weapons to Torchwood. I heard some things about them from the staff, I was going to try and get their help… when I started trying to contact them I found out about you. The Doctor. An alien who looks like a man, and had beaten these metal men before. I bribed someone from UNIT for information about how to set a signal from the plane that the TARDIS could read; so I could increase the chances she’d lead you here. If it didn’t work my plan was for the plane to land in the arctic. We would die but Anubis would be trapped as far away from humanity as I could manage.”

The Doctor’s expression was blank and shuttered.

“I’m sorry I have to tell you this much, I know you value your privacy. I’m very good at this. At finding out secrets, then keeping them.” She laughed, in a pained scattered way. “My usual job, it’s so reliant on being loyal and true to a families privacy but I need you to understand I had to have you here, I needed someone who knew what they were doing, who could try and save us. I didn’t want anyone to die. I hoped you’d never realise it was me.” 

“You want forgiveness.” The Doctor drew back. Turning away from Mischa’s pained wild eyes. “It’s not mine to give to you.”

She nodded, brushing a tear from her cheek. “I understand. And it’s not… I know I don’t deserve it. But I’m asking for your help. If you can kill Anubis, finally, this thing that has hung over my entire life will finally be over.”

Grimly the Doctor nodded, short and curt, before he stood and fixed George with an approving nod. “Let’s just get this done. Give me your tazer, George.”

George hesitated, just for a fraction of a section, eyes darting towards the ripped curtain that led towards the cockpit and his employer. “Are you sure Mischa is safe?”

“Is anyone ever, completely safe?” The Doctor echoed. “She’s not our biggest problem right now, that’s for sure, but keep an eye on her. You’ve done a great job George.”

George passed over the tazer, fingers touching the Doctor’s as he grabbed it. They paused, eyes locked together as something unspoken passed between them. “I need you and Max again Rose.” 

“What do you need?” Rose followed the Doctor back towards the bar, the prospect that the end of their trip on the increasingly claustrophobic plane would hopefully finally be over soon danced happily through her thoughts with every step. 

“Has this thing got pop on tap?”

“What?” She paused, face twisting in confusion. 

“Lemonade, ginger beer, that cherry cola that tastes like a toddler made perfume, from a spray tap thingy?”

“Yes…” Max slowly replied, equally as confused as Rose. 

“Fill us in whenever you feel like it, eh?” Rose rolled her eyes as she walked back through the little crowd of onlookers towards Max – the passengers were grouped randomly through the centre of the room, peering around them in utter befuddlement as they tried to work out where danger might be coming from next. 

The Doctor ignored them and their whispered question and so did Rose, eyes only for her path back around the bar and the Doctor’s quick fingers doing something to the tazer with his sonic before shooting them both a joyful smile. “Brilliant!” 

He jumped up on the bar instead of walking around, spinning his legs over it’s surface and dropping down on the other side in a ridiculously graceful move. 

“Right,” Max was holding the small plastic trigger headed hose that dispensed soft drinks behind the bar and the Doctor grabbed it off him to pass to Rose. “That’s for you. Max, you need to lift the hatch back up.”

“What?” He gaped, “Why?”

The Doctor grinned a self satisfied smile. “High speed liquid converter plus electricity plus half functioning cyberman all down the hatch.” 

A puzzled silence greeted his words.

“He’s going to electrocute it, with Sprite.” Rose translated.

The Doctor opened his mouth to complain about her choice of terms but she waved him off as Max shrugged and nodded; lips quirked in an oblique smile. “Sure, why not. Let’s go for it.”

The space behind there was so small it was nothing more than a few steps to get them all in position, a few seconds to get the screws on the hatch loosened and ready to go. The three of them circled around the metal access panel. Rose was closest to the bar, hose propped up near her shoulder like a shotgun. Max stood across from her, jigging up and down and shaking his limbs as he psyched himself up to pull back the carpet and grid. Between them was the Doctor, tazer ready in his palm. 

Remembering the passengers the Doctor’s eyes flicked up and he called “Get back everyone!” Dutifully they did so, still leaning as far forward as they could to try and keep the trio in sight. Their prerogative. 

Taking a deep breath Max clapped his hands a couple of times before locking his gaze on both their eyes in turn. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Rose breathed while the Doctor nodded briefly, eyes on the hatch. 

“Three, two, one, GO!”

As soon as the hatch was wrenched from it’s feeble grip on the rest of the floor and thrown aside the warped fractured metal and skin skull that made up Anubis’ head lunged toward them through the gap. 

“Uninvited passengers aren’t allowed behind the bar.” Rose growled, spraying him full in the face with the sugary drink as the Doctor slammed the tazer against the softer flesh of Anubis’ skull; it's dirty surface now sodden and shiny. As the Doctor held it in place an astronomical souped up voltage pumped through what remained of Anubis’ human organs. The cyberman shuddered and shook, the smell of burning flesh filling Rose’s lungs with an acrid smoke that made her want to back away. 

She didn’t. Not until the Doctor did. 

That was how they worked.

Eventually the Doctor pulled away, dropping the sparking tazer at his feet and retrieving his sonic from his inside pocket to scan the slumped cyberman for signs of life. 

“It’s dead.”

The roar of cheers and stamping of feet was deafening.


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose back on the TARDIS, where they're meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel slightly weird that this has come to an end, I have bloody loved my little writing an episode experiment and I'm so glad so many people have liked it enough to subscribe or leave kudos. Especially because most of the cast were OCs.
> 
> Maybe I'll write another one, I don't know - let me know what you think.
> 
> In the meantime this is how all late season two episodes should have finished! I tried to stay true to the M rating this started with.

Rose leaned back against the railing of the TARDIS with a happy sigh, gazing up at the familiar orange hued glow of the dark ceiling and offering up a hurried prayer to whatever gods of time and space had brought her and the Doctor safely back to the ship again. The central time column floated up and down in it’s usual reassuring rhythm and Rose gave the rail one last squeeze of gratitude before winding her way around the control panels towards the battered jump seat. 

The TARDIS door thumped open, and Rose didn’t need to turn and look to know that the feet clattering over the grid floor belonged to the Doctor. “All sorted, UNIT’s going to meet them when they land. Jazz is a much better pilot than she let on you know.” He called over and Rose nodded tiredly, all the spent energy from running away from cyberman controlled zombies for hours leaving her feeling sapped and lethargic. She slumped in the seat, propping her knees up against her chest so she could reach her boots and undo the buckles. 

“What about Mischa?”

The Doctor danced around the console, flipping switches and avoiding Rose’s eyes. “UNIT will pick her up.”

Rose dropped her boots on the floor and they landed with a heavy thud that rang around the cavernous space. “That’s okay is it?”

The Doctor didn’t reply, just swung the final switch that would start the dematerialization sequence and hung on to the coral frame as the TARDIS shook slightly, doing her thing. 

Rose wasn’t sure what she had expected him to say, she didn’t know how to feel about what Mischa had done. Half a dozen people had died, but the cyberking had also been killed. Memories of Pete’s world still sat heavily in her mind, of dead other Jackie and other Mickey. 

Another few dials and levers and the TARDIS shuddered to a stop. 

“Where are we?” 

“Not far, just orbiting the Earth.” The Doctor pressed the button to light up the screen and pulled it over to face the jump seat before coming to collapse beside Rose, throwing his arm over the back of the chair and nudging Rose’s folded legs until she swung them over his lap. “Best keep an eye on the transmissions for a bit.”

Rose nodded curling up against his chest and letting one hand play with the buttons of his suit as he reached down to massage her feet. “You got your jacket back.” His hands felt wonderful, finding the hidden knots and pressing them out in quick subtle moves that warmed her from the toes up.

“Not leaving this behind!” He scoffed and she smiled into the fabric before leaning back and stretching out, arms outstretched and legs held taut over his as she worked her achy muscles. 

“Oh no, couldn’t have that.” She shot him a teasing grin and leaned back against the crook of arm, letting her limbs fall comfortably back against him. “Not like you have any spares in the wardrobe.” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He sniffed, turning his head away and staring at the spinning circles that spanned the screen pointedly. 

Rose laughed, letting the hand on his chest glide further over the blue shirt and tuck underneath the front of his suit on the other side. He was so warm, and the double beat of his hearts thudded pleasingly under her fingers. 

“How long until they land?”

His attention was still elsewhere, the foot massage abandoned as his fingers dancing absentmindedly in some forgotten rhythm against her thigh. “A few hours probably.”

“I’d suggest we kill some time in New York, but that never seems to end well for us.”

He chuckled ruefully, stretching back to ruffle his hair in a slightly embarrassed gesture. “Sorry about that. Next time, I promise.”

“Dunno, think it might be cursed.”

He ducked his head ruefully. “Yeah, maybe we should skip it.” There was a pause, their faces once again so close together it would be nothing to reach over and close the gap, take those lips in hers. “Celebrate here instead.” He breathed. 

An internal war was raging inside Rose’s head. She’d made the first move earlier, she wanted, needed, it to come from him now. Needed to know this thing she couldn't put in to words was mutual. “Yeah.” She murmured. 

She expected him to pull away, to jump up and start messing about with the TARDIS. He stayed exactly where he was; the hand that had been in his hair gliding down to her side, long fingers slowly sliding up from her hip to her waist, heavy with potential that sparked joyful feedback across her skin everywhere he touched. 

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look?”

She shook her head, eyes flickering down to his lips. 

“I can’t believe you’re still here sometimes.”

Rose felt her brow furrow as she met the Doctor’s eyes again, startled at the intensity of his gaze, the sadness behind the brown pools. His eyes always looked old, but now they looked ancient. “Why would I be anywhere else?” She echoed. “This is my home, with you.”

It wasn’t meant to be some grand declaration, but the Doctor’s face slipped from sorrow to pleased. That little look that always made Rose feel extraordinary, that she’d somehow done or said something no one else could. His lips found hers, a soft and gentle press that filled her veins with fire. She gripped his shirt pulling herself closer against him; deepening the kiss. 

The Doctor's arms wrapped tighter against her, his hands spanning over her back until they were pressed tight against each other. All the urgency of their earlier fumbling in the staff cabin of the plane had come back in an instant; Rose flexed her hand against his chest, looking for his buttons and hoping he was thinking the same. She couldn’t explain, didn’t want to explain, why it felt so urgent to feel him more closely, to run her hands over his skin without so many barriers between. 

He twisted her in his arms, and she moved with him, breaking the kiss to slip off the jump seat and stand, flushed and rumpled in front of him. The Doctor’s eyes were dark, lips swollen, and she wondered if the broken contact made him feel as empty and bereft as it did her. He tilted towards her, his hands finding hers and tugging her back into his embrace. She complied, knees sliding either side of his hips until she was straddling him, the dark fabric of her dress bunched around her hips. 

His hands found her thighs again, smoothing the skin as she leaned in to recapture his lips; the joy of the simple action was almost startling, pleasure and anticipation sparking all over her brain. She found his shirt buttons again, loosening the fastening as his stumbling fingers found the zip of her dress, pulling back to try and work out what he was doing. She giggled against his cheek and helped him battling with zips and buttons and bra catches until it was just them naked.

It was surreal, and beautiful and every touch felt like it was supposed to be. Like they had been thrown together in the basement of a shop to fuse together at this exact moment, on a time and spaceship orbiting her home planet. When she came it felt like being consumed by a benevolent sun, a gentle golden fire that soared through her limbs and made her wonder if this is what it felt like to really fly. The Doctor clutched Rose close like he was afraid she would vanish, all promises of places they would go and adventures they would have; all mumbled through scattered kisses and sighs and three hearts racing together. 

They never talked about what they were doing. What it meant, or didn’t.

She couldn’t bring herself to care.


End file.
